THE TROPICAL OR ANTILLEAN REGION OF FLORIDA. 

 By Nelson C. Brown. 



It has been estimated that ']'j per cent, of the total land area 

 of Florida is timbered. This means that Florida probably has 

 a greater percentage under forest cover than any other state in 

 the Union. Besides having such a wealth of forest growth, 47 

 per cent, of all the tree species found in the United States occur 

 in Florida. A particularly large number of northern species 

 find their southern limit within the borders of the state, including, 

 White, Post, Cow, Live, Spanish, Water, and Yellow oaks. Ash, 

 Hickory, Yellow Poplar, Red Gum, Elm, Persimmon, Willow, 

 Black Gum, Red Maple, Holly and Magnolia. Of the other 

 woods that are not found in any other part of the country, there 

 is an almost numberless variety of tropical or Antillean species, 

 many of which have still to be identified and classified. Between 

 the hardwoods of the temperate zone and the tropical zone occud 

 the transitional forms of tree growth such as Cuban pine, longleaf 

 pine, short leaf pine and cypress. The distinctively tropical 

 region of Florida is found only on the southern end of the penin- 

 sula and extends much farther north on the Atlantic coast than 

 on the Gulf Coast. This is undoubtedly caused by the warming 

 influence of the gulf stream which skirts the coast of southern 

 Florida very closely. It is somewhat difficult to locate exactly 

 the definitive line between the tropical zone and the transitional 

 belt just north of it, but the following description will sufiice. 

 From Mosquito inlet on the Atlantic Coast in eastern Volusia 

 County, the line skirts the coast in a narrow belt to lower Osceola 

 County about 20 miles north of Lake Okeechobee. From here 

 the line runs across lower DeSoto County and turns northeast 

 across Manatee County to lower Tampa Bay. Approximately 

 one-fourth of the peninsula proper is included within the tropical 

 zone. 



Up to the present date comparatively little has been known of 

 this region. It has been traversed occasionally by botanists 

 and explorers but little has been known of the swampy interior 

 before the extension of the Florida East Coast Railroad to Key 



