66 Forestry Qua/rterly 



pine the leading tree in spite of the prevailing damp soil. Cypress 

 and Slash pine stand next to it in abundance. 



There are four other regions containing 1,000 square miles or 

 over. The Peninsular lime-sink region (2,000 square miles) is 

 the source of the hard rock phosphate mined in Florida. There 

 are whole townships without any running water, and many 

 square miles without any surface water. The rain water sinks 

 into the sand almost immediately and gradually finds its way into 

 the subterranean channels of the porous limestone. At least 

 nine-tenths of the region was originally covered with park-like 

 stands of large Longleaf pine with an understory of Black-jack 

 oak and Turkey oak (Q. cinerea), and these three species now 

 make up over 85 per cent, of the forest. The gulf hammock 

 region (1,470 square miles) is similar in tree vegetation to the 

 flatwoods described above, but is separated because the surface 

 soil is not distinctly calcareous. The middle Florida flatwoods 

 (1,000 square miles) are non-calcareous as to surface soils and 

 are covered by the usual Longleaf pine forests and cypress 

 swamps. The west Florida lime-sink region (1,000 square miles) 

 is calcareous, and again the leading trees are Longleaf pine and 

 cypress. 



A pine, usually the Longleaf, heads the list in regard to abun- 

 dance in eleven of the nineteen regions for which lists are given. In 

 three regions, two species of pine, and in four of the regions three 

 species of pine, head the list. Pines are not only numerically domi- 

 nant, but, as is evident from the descriptions, they are also biologi- 

 cally dominant. Oaks stand second in six, and cypress in four of 

 the regions. The author attempts to separate his regions to a 

 certain extent upon the chemical composition of the soil. Al- 

 though there may be local differences in the composition and 

 structure of forest stands when some food element is in excess 

 or absent, it would seem, from the prevailing dominance of pine 

 in this case, that the author had not succeeded in making the ap- 

 plication general for his regions, at least in respect to forest trees. 



C. D. H. 



