HARPER: CLIMAX VEGETATION BLT 
all but two of the shrubs, and all the herbs, are evergreen; that 
two of the shrubs are vines, and half the herbs are epiphytes. It 
happens that all the herbs listed, except the last, have perennial 
stems above the ground; but a visit in summer would probably 
reveal a few herbs of the ordinary type, whose aerial parts die 
down in winter. 
The broad leaves and consequent shade, the preponderance of 
woody plants over herbs, the absence of conifers, and the presence 
~ of several vines and epiphytes, are all characters of climax vege- 
tation: but in the large proportion of evergreens, and a few other 
particulars, these hammocks differ considerably from the “ meso- 
phytic climax’’ forests a few hundred miles farther inland, where 
the soils are more clayey and the winters colder and wetter than 
in peninsular Florida. Forests very similar in aspect and com- 
position to those just described, however, are found in many other 
parts of the coastal plain where deep sandy soils, mild dry winters 
and wet summers prevail, and they probably represent the climax 
type for those conditions of soil and climate. Although none of 
the species above listed are peculiar to Florida, about half of them 
are confined to the coastal plain or very nearly so. 
The only apparent difference between the soil of the hammocks 
and that of the neighboring pine land was that due to the vegeta- 
tion itself, namely, a small amount of humus (which is necessarily 
present in all hammocks and other shady upland forests) on the 
peninsulas. There is no reason to believe that the underlying 
limestone is any nearer to the surface on the peninsulas than else- 
where, and few of the plants listed are supposed to have any 
particular fondness for lime. Although I did not set foot on any 
of the islands in the same lake, I have no doubt that their vegeta- 
tion differs little from that of the peninsulas. 
Afterwards I observed a similar state of affairs at many other 
places in Florida, particularly in the lake region,* where many of 
the larger lakes have one or more narrow OF narrow-necked 
peninsulas projecting out into them, with vegetation apparently 
always of the hammock type—if not already destroyed and re- 
placed by orange groves or some other form of agricultural enter- 
prise. And wherever islands occur in these lakes the vegetation 
* See Ann. Rep. Fla. Geol. Surv. 3: 223. I91T- 
