MICROSCOPICAL COLLECTIONS IN FLORIDA.* 



It has been my fortune during the past two winters to spend a 

 few weeks in the regions of central Florida. Lake Harris is the 

 most southern and the most beautiful of the cluster of lakes 

 which forms the source of that exceedingly picturesque river, the 

 Ocklawaha. With high banks, and surrounded by a belt of 

 hummock land as rich as any that Florida affords, this lake is be- 

 coming settled upon, and its lands are fast being taken up by 

 enterprising southerners for orange-groves and pine-apple plan- 

 tations. The sojourner will find the society of this lake-settle- 

 ment intelligent and hospitable beyond anything that would be 

 expected in so new and pioneer a country. The vegetation of 

 this almost tropical region is so full of interest to the microsco- 

 pist, and the causes conducing thereto so peculiar, that I have 

 thought them deserving of especial mention and illustration. 



The absence, or at least the rarity of frosts injurious to vege- 

 tation in these lake districts, gives the longest possible season for 

 the growth and maturity of such organs as are best or especially 

 adapted to the exigencies of Florida plants. There is a period 

 of rest, usually comprising about the three winter months, after 

 which vegetation takes up and continues its growth again as if 

 there had been no period of interruption ; so that practically 

 there is a continuous development of plant life, whether annual 

 or perennial, from birth to death. 



The soil of Florida, as of all the South-Atlantic sea-board, is 

 sandy and naturally barren. ~No polar glaciers have ground up 



* A Paper read at the Boston meeting of The American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science (August, 1880); and published in its proceedings; 

 also in American Monthly Microscopical Journal, October, 1880. 



