FLORIDA 



'J220 



FLOTOW 



It is estimated that Silver Spring, in Marion 

 County, pours out about 300,000,000 gallons of 

 crystal-clear water daily. 



Saint Augustine, founded in 1565, is the old- 

 est town in the United States. 



Of the states east of the Mississippi only 

 one, Georgia, is larger than Florida. 



Though it has no great heights, Florida is 

 by no means monotonous in its surface fea- 

 tures, the central "lake region" especially be- 

 ing diversified with innumerable wooded hills. 



Florida has great stretches of "prairie," but 

 at certain seasons this would not be recognized 

 as such, for, unlike the western prairie land, it 

 is occasionally flooded and becomes in effect 

 swamp land. 



The forests of the state, according to the 

 latest estimates, cover almost two-thirds of 

 the total area, and no other state in the Union 

 has so many different kinds of trees. 



Florida once had large flocks of egrets, but 

 the demand for their beautiful feathers was so 

 great that most of them have been killed. 



Related Subject*. The reader who wishes for 

 more detailed information on the subject of Flor- 

 ida will find it in the following articles : 



CITIES AND TOWNS 



Gainesville . Pensacola 

 Jacksonville Saint Augustine 



Key West Saint Petersburg 



Miami Tallahassee 



Palm Beach Tampa 



COAST WATERS 



Florida, Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of 



INLAND WATERS 



Apalachicola River Okechobee Lake 



Alligator Poar 



Banana 



Cigars 



Cocoanut 



Corn 



Fuller's Earth 



Grape Fruit 



Guava. 



Kumquat 



Dry Tortugas 

 Everglades 



LEADING PRODUCTS 



Lemon 



Lime 



Lumber 



Orange 



Phosphates 



Pineapple 



Rosin 



Sponge 



Turpentine 



UNCLASSIFIED 



Florida Keys 

 Seminole 



FLORIDA, GULF OF, also called FLORIDA 

 STRAITS and once known as NEW BAHAMA 

 CHANNEL, comprises the waters which separate 

 Southeast Florida and the Florida Keys from 

 the Bahamas, at the east and Cuba at the 

 south. The Gulf Stream passes through it. 

 It is over 300 miles in length, which equals 

 that of the Delaware River, and in width it 

 varies from sixty to 100 miles. Although the 



shallow waters of the Great Bahama Bank 

 are included in the eastern half of this gulf, 

 the main channel is about 3,000 feet deep. 



FLORIDA, UNIVERSITY OF, a state university 

 for men, established in 1905 at Gainesville by 

 act of legislature. By this same act all the 

 institutions then under state control were 

 merged into two schools, the other being the 

 State College for Women at Tallahassee. The 

 university at Gainesville is organized into the 

 graduate school, the colleges of arts and 

 sciences, agriculture, engineering, law, the 

 teachers' college, the agricultural experiment 

 station and the university extension division. 

 A summer school is maintained, which attracts 

 a large number of students. The income of 

 the institution, amounting to over $100,000 a 

 year, is derived from state appropriations and 

 from various educational funds. Each depart- 

 ment of the university has a separate building 

 for carrying out its major work. The total 

 student enrollment is about 650, and there are 

 about sixty professors and instructors. 



FLORIDA KEYS, a group of small islands 

 or reefs which stretch in a curved line 200 miles 

 long, from Biscayne Bay southwest into the 

 Gulf of Mexico. They are remarkable exam- 

 ples of coral formation, and most of them are 

 submerged by high tide. They contain numer- 

 ous good harbors, the most important being" 

 the one at Key West. Here is located the 

 town of Key West, which has a naval station, 

 and is connected by steamers with principal 

 eastern coast cities. The railroad from Key 

 West to the mainland, over the water from 

 island to island, a distance of 130 miles, was 

 financed by Henry M. Flagler, and is consid- 

 ered one of the greatest of modern engineer- 

 ing feats. A map of this sea-going extension 

 of the Florida East Coast Railway is shown 

 with the article FLORIDA. 



FLOR'IN (pronounced with short o), a term 

 derived from the Latin florem, meaning flower, 

 is the name given to a gold coin which orig- 

 inated in Florence in the thirteenth century. It 

 was so called because it bore on one side the 

 imprint of a lily. Similar coins were soon in 

 circulation all over Europe. The gulden, or 

 florin, was until recently the unit of account 

 in Austria, and was worth about forty cents. 

 The Dutch florin has the same value. The 

 English two-shilling piece, called a florin, is 

 worth about fifty cents. 



FLOTOW, flo'toh, FRIEDRICH VON (1812- 

 1883), a German operatic composer, best known 

 as the author of Martha, which is considered 



