FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 



VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 



even stand with an open crown admitting the light to the forest floor beneath 

 (Plate II, Fig. 3, Plate IV). The trunk of the dominant pines is straight, 

 tapering upward to a maximum height of 35 meters. The trunk diameter may 

 reach 1.5 meters, but in the forest there are all ages of growth, so that the 

 diameters vary widely. The bark of these trees is split into broad, flat, 

 irregular plates (Plate III, Fig. 2) covered with reddish-brown scales; the 

 inner layers are yellowish-gray to orange-brown and ball-like lumps of hard- 

 ened resin is found on some of the trees. If one stands in the center of the 

 forest and looks around, he sees in some places sandy soil covering the oolitic 

 limestone, in other places, the rough nodules of the limestone projecting 

 through the surface soil between the pine trees and the light-greens or dark- 

 greens of the scattered saw-palmettos, shrubby and herbaceous vegetation of 

 the forest floor (Plate IV). Above he sees the serried columns of the pine 

 trees, which as they close together in the perspective distance, depending upon 

 the closeness of the stand, give a flat, reddish-brown, background color, while 

 above the crown of the trees against the blue of the sky, or against the woolly 

 white cumulus clouds, is a prevailing yellowish-green color. The flowers open 

 in January and February before the new leaves appear, so that in these months 

 the prevailing color of the foliage above is lighter than at any other season 

 of the year after the leaves which last about two years have become of adult 

 size and color. In some districts where the trees are tapped for the small 

 amount of crude turpentine, which they yield, the areas from which the bark 

 has been cut to remove the turpentine are conspicuous as one looks in any di- 

 rection through the forest of this handsomest of southeastern pines, known in 

 different localities as bastard-pine, meadow-pine, pitch-pine, she-pine, slash- 

 pine, spruce-pine and swamp-pine. 



Reproduction of this pine is generally very good. The seeds germinate 

 readily into vigorous seedlings which grow rapidly and take entire possession, 

 even with the presence of other competing species of pines. It promises to 

 replenish the forest areas with young trees, which in forty years are ready for 

 tapping, and which yield a wood with a coarse grain, easily infiltrated with 

 creosote and other preservatives. Thus in the short time of forty years, a 

 new forest replaces the old one. On the west coast, south and north of the 

 Caloosahatchee River, the slash-pine mingles with the long-leaf pine, Pinus 

 palustris Mill, which north of Punta Gorda and the east head of Charlotte 

 Harbor is the dominant tree in pure forest except for a slight admixture of Pinus 



