PREFACE. 



This handbook contains descriptions of all the shrubs known to the 

 author to grow naturally in the state of Florida. In this connection woody 

 annuals are not considered shrubs; but trees which assume shrubby forms 

 or which in some localities occur only as shrubs, are included, as also 

 woody vines. 



The state is very irregular in outline, but it may primarily be divided 

 into two major districts. One consists of a rather narrow strip of terri- 

 tory extending east and west for a distance of nearly four hundred miles. 

 The other, a peninsula with adjacent islands, together with the Florida 

 Keys, projects southward into a eastern part of the Gulf of Mexico, for a 

 distance of fully four hundred miles. In the first district shrubs char- 

 acteristic of a temperate climate predominate. In the peninsula the 

 temperate species give place to those characteristic of subtropical regions, 

 while at the southern end of the peninsula, especially on the Everglade 

 Keys and beyond the peninsula on the Florida Keys, shrubs of a tropical 

 character replace other forms. 



The geographic position of Florida with its temperate, subtropical,, 

 and tropical climates, and the varied topography of its surface, col- 

 lectively result in the occurrence of a remarkably large shrub flora. 



The state of Florida may be divided into a score of natural geographic 

 regions, but in giving the distribution of the shrubs on the following 

 pages, a more comprehensive subdivision of the two major districts is 

 used. The several abbreviations employed in connection with the distribu- 

 tion of the shrubs are as follows : 



Ala Alabama. n northern. 



Cont Continental. Nat Native. 



E East. pen peninsula or peninsular. 



e eastern. s southern. 



E. Keys Everglade Keys, subtrop subtropical. 



Eu Europe. trop tropical. 



F. Keys Florida Keys. W West. 



Fla Florida. w western. 



Ga Georgia. W. I West Indies. 



m middle. 



These abbreviations are self-explanatory, except perhaps those given 

 in parentheses. These indicate the extralimital distribution of the species : 

 for example, " Ga." and " Ala." indicates that, outside of Florida, a species 



