1904.] NATURAL SCIEN'CES OF PHILADELPHIA. 775 



produced. The pine forests are usually wholly composed of the long- 

 leaf variety, but here and there a forest of nothing but the short-leaf 

 pine is to be found. In the pine woods there are hardly any other trees 

 excepting occasional oaks, sweet gums and dogwoods. These woods are 

 very open and there being hardly any undergrowth, a wagon may be 

 driven through them almost anyw^here. The ground is in nearly all 

 places thickly carpeted with wire-grass and other small plants, with 

 here and there a dense clump of gall-berry bushes, while everywhere 

 the long pine needles are thickly scattered. Throughout these woods 

 the yellow jasmine grows in great luxuriance and when in flower is 

 most beautiful. In each depression of the land a stream is to be 

 found, called in this country a "branch." These streams are almost 

 invariably filled with a thick growth of magnolias, bay, black gum, 

 tulip, beech and other trees, while the undergrowth of blackberry, 

 grape and other vines is usually very dense, and an occasional thicket 

 of pipe cane adds to the difficulty of following the course of one of 

 these streams. To this must be added the fact that in many places 

 the ground on both sides of the "branch" is boggy and there are 

 muddy holes covered by sphagnum between the roots of the trees. 

 There are a few places where the pine forests have been cut down and 

 the land left uncultivated ; in these situations has sprung up a dense 

 growth of scrub oak, which has completely choked out almost all other 

 vegetation. In other unreclaimed fields the short-leaf pine thrives, 

 and less frec^uently one finds a heavy growth of young long-leaf pines. 



The Ocklockonee river flows within five miles of the town, and is a 

 stream about thirty feet in width during the dry part of the year, but 

 diu-ing the heavy rains it spreads for a mile or more over the nearby 

 country, which is in most places low and swampy. 



Along portions of the river bank are dense swamps of gum, cypress 

 and other trees. Through these swamps run numerous ridges of clay 

 and sand with here and there shallow lagoons, which with the great 

 height of the trees and the numbers of fallow and mouldering logs 

 lend to these bottoms a very wild aspect. These places are the only 

 situations in this part of the country where deer, wildcats and an occa- 

 sional bear may be found. The character of the country just across 

 the line in Leon county, Florida, differs noticeably from that about 

 Thomasville. It is more rolling, with small lakes in every depression. 

 This country is unhealthy, for in the summer these lakes dry up expos- 

 ing to the sun a great amount of decayed vegetable matter. The 

 largest lakes near Thomasville are lamonia and Miccosukee. They are 

 distant from the town about fifteen and eighteen miles respectively. 



