TRANSACTIONS OF WAGNER 



VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 



If we consult the map of the distribution of Pinus clausa (Engelm.) Vasey 

 included in the first part of Sudworth's Forest Atlas, Geographic Distribution 

 of North American Trees (U. S. Forest Service, 1913, Map No. 29), we dis- 

 cover that the distribution of Ceratiola as given above is partially coincident 

 with that of the sand-pine, although the range of Ceratiola is greater than that 

 of the pine (Plate V, Fig. i). Given one of these two plants in an area, we may 

 expect to find the other hard by. Such coincidences of distribution are not 

 rare in ecologic study, as, for example, the association of the hemlock, Tsuga 

 canadensis (L.) Carr, the round-leaved violet, Viola rotundifolia Michx., and 

 Lycopodium lucidulum Michx. That such coincidences in the association of 

 plants are not due to chance, but are due to an accommodation of certain asso- 

 ciated plant species to the same environmental factors has been abundantly 

 proved, not only in these isolated cases, but in other regions and in other vege- 

 tation types as well. If our plant distributional and ecologic studies mean any- 

 thing, they should enable us to postulate what the associations of plant species 

 should be, given certain edaphic, biologic and climatic conditions. It is in- 

 cumbent upon the ecologist to match climates, to discover what the interre- 

 lationship of plant species is, not only with species associated in the same for- 

 mation, but also with the same climate and soil. In the determination of such 

 factors by accurate instrumentation and experimentation, so that we may pre- 

 dict what kind of vegetation may be expected given certain conditions of en- 

 vironment, lies the possibility of making ecology an exact science. 



A low, ericaceous shrub, Vaccinium nitidum Andr., occurs in the scrub at 

 Ft. Lauderdale. The oaks, rosemary and other plants, such as, Xolisma 

 fruticosa (Michx.) Nash, Palafoxia Feayi A. Gray, are festooned, or draped, 

 with the stringy branches of the yellow, or reddish orange, leafless parasite, 

 Cassytha filiformis L. Although this parasite is not confined to the rosemary 

 scrub, but is found on plants of the flat pineland and sea dunes, yet it is a strik- 

 ing element of the sand pine forest not only in its yellow, or reddish-orange 

 color, but also in its peculiar habit of growing from bush to bush and plant to 

 plant like Cuscuta until they are enmeshed by the twining, slender, cord-like 

 stems, sometimes matted together like a snarl of yarn. The bushes are en- 

 snared like a lion in a hunter's net, or like a fly in the meshes of a cobweb. 

 Like Arachne, Cassytha spins its yellow threads over the herbs and shrubs 

 of the forest. The Virginia-creeper, Parthenocissus (Ampelopsis) quinque- 

 folia (L.) Planch, and Vitis Munsoniana (Simps.) Small, are common lianes 



