A Botanical Excursion to the Big Cypress 



By JOHN KUNKEL SMALL 



Head Curator of the Museums and Herbarium of the New York Botanical Garden 



- 



THE most extensive physiographic 

 trinity or the largest prairie-marsh- 

 swamp region, and at the same time 

 the least known area in the eastern United 

 States, is in southern Florida. The "Big 

 Cypress," or the Big Cypress Swamp, lies 

 south of the Caloosahatehee River between 

 the Everglades and the Gulf of Mexico. The 

 greater part of our population is ignorant 

 even of this geographic designation. To the 

 few who have seen it printed on maps the 

 name signifies nothing, or conveys but a 

 vague idea. Only a score or two of survey- 

 ors, hunters, and prospectors, out of the 

 hundred million inhabitants of the United 

 States, have any definite knowledge of its 

 physical geography. 



The second week of May, 1917, we were 

 on the very edge of the Big Cypress when we 

 navigated Lake Hiepochee during a cruise to 

 Lake Okeechobee. The day we returned from 

 that cruise, which was described in former 

 papers,i an opportunity to explore some of 

 the mysteries of the Big Cypress unexpectedly 

 presented itself. Mr. W. Stanley Hanson, a 

 bird inspector with the United States Bio- 

 logical Survey, and a naturalist well ac- 

 quainted with the Big Cypress, had come to 

 Miami across country from Fort Myers, 

 whence he was about to retrace his course. 

 The opportunity to accompany him on a trip 

 through largely unknown territory was a 

 temptation too great to be resisted. Conse- 

 quently, we prepared a Ford for a week's 

 run, and the next day set out for Fort 

 Myers. Miami and Fort Myers are about 

 120 miles distant from each other, in a di- 

 rect line, but the intervening area could 

 have been conveniently, or at least expedi- 

 tiously, traveled only in an aeroplane. The 

 shortest course possible for us followed a 

 curve more than 250 miles in length. 



In order to bring us to our most distant 

 objective which lay across the Everglades 

 only about sixty miles from Miami, we had 

 to make a detour around the Everglades 



1 Journal of the New York Botanical Garden, 

 Vol. XIX, 1918, pp. 279-90. The American 

 Museum Journal, Vol. XVIII. 1918, pp. 684- 

 700 



488 



and Lake Okeechobee at their head. The 

 facilities for making an examination of the 

 country and a collection of specimens of its 

 vegetation were generously furnished by Mr. 

 Charles Deering, of Miami. 



The first stage of our course lay along the 

 eastern coast of Florida between Miami and 

 Fort Pierce. Miami, Fort Pierce, and Fort 

 Myers are about equidistant one from the 

 other, or, straight lines connecting the three 

 places would form an equilateral triangle. 

 The territory included in the triangle, made 

 up mostly of everglades, prairies, cypress 

 swamp, and pineland, together with Lake 

 Okeechobee situated near one side of the 

 triangle, was essentially uninhabited, ex- 

 cept for the scattered settlements in the 

 Caloosahatehee River region. Between 

 Miami and Fort Pierce pinelands and sand 

 dunes (scrub 2 ) predominate; between Fort 

 Pierce and Fort Myers are pinelands and 

 prairies; while between Fort Myers and 

 Miami lie prairies, cypress swamps, and the 

 Everglades. 



Mr. Hanson preceded us to West Palm 

 Beach, where we overtook him. It was late 

 in the evening when we reached Stuart, 

 where we had to spend the night because of 

 a high wind which made the ferryman hesi- 

 tate to carry us across the Saint Lucie River. 

 An early start the next morning brought us 

 to Fort Pierce in time for breakfast. Thence 

 we started on the second leg of the tri- 

 angle, proceeding in a southwesterly direc- 

 tion. 



Between Miami and Fort Pierce our 

 course took us through not fewer than 

 forty towns. 3 After leaving Fort Pierce 

 only four settlements were encountered, two 

 established settlements and two embryonic 

 colonies. 



After Fort Pierce disappeared from view 

 we sped westward through pinelands and 

 across the Halpatiokee Swamp, where count- 

 less turtles and snakes basked in the sun 

 about the water pools that lined the road. 



- These are quiescent inland dunes of snow- 

 white sand. 



3 These lie outside of the triangle of unin- 

 habited territory referred to in a previous para- 

 graph. 



