TRANSACTIONS OF WAGNER 



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VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 



from Delray on the east coast south to Detroit in Dade County and the low 

 ridges of this rock separate the Everglades from the mangrove swamps and 

 salt prairies along the western shore of Bay Biscayne. Along the western 

 edge, the outcrops slope gradually to the level of the Everglades and at their 

 southern extremity a sharp western bend is made where the limestone tapers 

 off to a series of rocky keys, or islands, surrounded by saw-grass vegetation. 

 Long Key is the largest of these rock islands, which extend fully 24 kms. be- 

 yond the southwest corner of the larger groups of similar islands. The hard 

 rock outcrops west of the Everglades are more scattered than on the east coast, 

 but cover a wider extent of country. The region of pine islands and cypress 

 swamps is characterized by projections of limestone through the sandy mantle. 

 Such outcrops are found along the roads from Ft. Myers to Ft. Shackleford 

 and from Ft. Myers past Immokalee to the head of Aliens River. There are 

 also areas of bare rock, which extend as narrow, interrupted strips of varying 

 length up to several miles through the pineland. The limestone on the west 

 coast is denser and finer than on the east coast, so that it weathers irregularly 

 into rounded knobs, which project several inches to a foot above the surface. 

 On the east coast, the softer, oolotic limestone weathers into sharp, angular 

 fragments which lie loosely on the surface, or it is eaten into pockets filled with 

 sand, which accommodate various plants of the region (Plate II, Fig. 3). The 

 surface, therefore, is very rough and uneven, and owing to the honeycombed 

 character of the rock, in some places full of larger and smaller pot holes, walk- 

 ing through the forest is dangerous, especially, too, as loose fragments strew the 

 surface and rattlesnakes are found sometimes. There has been solution under- 

 ground as well and the holes which have been formed, and which communicate 

 with underground channels, are of all sizes. Some of them are known as 

 banana holes (Plate III, Figs, i and 2) and will be described later with their 

 vegetation. Deep Lake on the west coast, twelve miles east of Everglade 

 Post Office, is a great limestone sink filled with water. The low, natural rock 

 bridge of Arch Creek and the Punch Bowl are evidence of such solution. The 

 pineland is intersected by rivers that have been described in the geographic 

 section. South of Larkin, narrow transverse prairies extending west almost 

 or quite to the Everglades separate the pineland into islands. These 

 prairies vary in width and their appearance and vegetation will be left for sub- 

 sequent treatment. 



The pine forest consists of tall slash-pine trees, Pinus caribaea Morelet, of 



