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island-like patches l\ing close to the shore or occupying similary isolated 

 patches on the shore of the Everglades and the few islands in the Ever- 

 glades. The bulk of the mainland is covered by pine woods* with an 

 undergrowth composed almost entirely of true Floridian plants. There 

 are further vast stretches of what is called "the prairie," i. e. land quite 

 recently formed, partly by the accumulation of seaweeds swept ashore by 

 the waves, and partly by the advance of the Mangroves. This prairie is 

 covered with the same herbaceous vegetation which we see in similar 

 places in Central Florida and does not contain a single semitropical 

 ' plant. Even the hammock is invaded by several true Floridian trees : 

 the Live Oaks, several Palmettos, the Hackberry and others make their 

 appearance and, on higher ground we find plenty of Persea carolinensis. 

 Now on all these trees, in the pine woods and on the prairie, in short 

 wherever there is the Floridian flora we meet the true Floridian insect 

 fauna whereas the semitropical fauna is confined to the semitropical 

 forest. ** This fact once recognized, it becomes evident that the north- 

 ward extent of this fauna is identical with that of the semitropical forest, 

 a fact fully borne out by subsequent experience. 



We have seen that the semitropical forest occupies the chain of the 

 Keys and island- like spots on the shores of Biscayne Bay and farther 

 south on the mainland. North of Miami River the coral formation 

 rapidly sinks below the level of the ground and the land is covered with 

 vast stretches of Mangrove and saw-grass swamps until it is lost into the 

 Everglades. The semitropical forest is no longer to be found here but it 

 is continued northward in a remarkable way on the narrow and sandy 

 coast strip beginning with Cape Florida. Here we meet for the first time 

 with the semitropical maritime flora in its fullest development. It covers 

 as a dense shrubbery the land back of the beach ; but to my surprise I 

 was unable to discover any peculiar Coleoptera on this flora although in 

 Hemiptera I found here quite a number of the most striking species. 

 But in the t^ery midst of this shrubbery, at a distance of from 2 — 300 

 yards from the beach, there occur little patches of the semitropical forest, 

 these patches being only about one acre in size, rarely larger and often 



* While it is true that the Pine of Southern Florida, Pinus cubensis, is also of 

 West Indian origin, its distribution in Florida is quite different from the rest of the 

 semitropical flora and its introduction evidently of a very ancient date. Its fauna 

 does not differ from that of the Yellow Pine (P. palustris) . 



** There is, in addition, in Southern Florida a maritime fauna of semitropical 

 character but the number of species composing the same (about 12 in Coleoptera) is 

 so small that it is hardly worth while considering. Its northern extent is still uncer- 

 tain but it is safe to say that on the eastern coast, it does not reach beyond Musquito 

 Inlet at New Smyrna. 



