THE ORIGIN OF THE HAMMOCKS 199 



made a good start which with some lesser vege- 

 tation aids in the fight for the conquest of the pine 

 forest. Trema floridana, descendant of a closely 

 related West Indian species, soon appears on the 

 scene. It is a small, soft-wooded tree with orange- 

 colored berries, which are relished by birds, is of no 

 account whatever and appears to be just the thing 

 to burn, which it often does. It has, however, its 

 part to play, for growing thickly and rapidly it 

 overcomes and kills the palmetto scrub and other 

 low vegetation opposing the hammock extension. 

 Then comes the poison tree (Metopium) and a 

 right good fire fighter it is. Myrsine and marlberry 

 arrive and become abundant in the expanding 

 young forest. They grow close together and 

 shade the ground. 



Given now a few years with no bad fire to 

 cripple it our fledgling hammock will have pushed 

 rapidly out into the pine forest. The pines do 

 not flourish in the hammock; they retire before it 

 as does the Indian before the white man. When 

 I came to my home sixteen years ago a solitary 

 slender pine grew in my hammock. It is still 

 alive, but although I have cleared away around 

 it, it does not grow and it is not healthy. Occa- 



