198 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



spared a few years from fire it reaches a height of 

 several feet and displays a goodly spread of 

 branches. At this stage of its growth a fire will 

 scorch or may destroy its top, but it is not likely to 

 kill it outright. Although crippled and handi- 

 capped it continues to grow and in time its foliage 

 begins to shade the ground. This shade is the 

 first blow against the pines the hammock seeks to 

 supplant. It is as deadly to the pines as the Upas 

 tree to the forests of Java. Now these oaks have 

 low, rounded heads and the limbs reach close to 

 the ground. A tree in the pineland near me about 

 thirteen years old has a trunk twenty inches in 

 diameter and a low, dense crown fifty feet across. 

 Such trees cast a deep shade and prevent the light- 

 loving young pines from getting a start ; they also 

 rob the soil of its substance, making it difficult for 

 any other vegetation to grow beside them. 



This oak must be a veritable salamander, for it 

 emerges almost unscathed from fires which would 

 destroy any ordinary tree. Even its leaves are 

 nearly fireproof. When they fall they lie flat on 

 the ground and the strongest heat will scarcely 

 . singe them. 



In the meantime another oak or two has likely 



