TRANSACTIONS OF WAGNER 

 132 



VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 



prairie along the Florida East Coast Railroad south of Detroit in circular forms 

 of large and small size surrounded with grass and sedge vegetation. In these 

 hammocks the palmetto is conspicuous, as well as other sclerophyllous plants, 

 such as Cerothamnus (Myrica) ceriferus (L.) Small. These hammocks be- 

 come more common some distance southward, and there the prairie is 

 dotted with them. 



Live-Oak-Palmetto Hammock Formation. The live-oak-palmetto hammock 

 is a type of river hammock occurring in drier soil. The live-oaks, Quercus 

 virginiana Mill, have spreading branches and form the dominant growth. Be- 

 tween these oaks and rising to an equal height the palmetto trees are scattered, 

 or sprinkled through the hammock. Sometimes the palmetto trees are more 

 abundant and the hammock approaches in ecologic character the type previ- 

 ously described. Where the palmetto trees are scanty the live-oak-palmetto 

 hammock merges insensibly into one consisting of live-oaks. The branches 

 of the live-oaks are loaded with epiphytes of various sorts, but one of the most 

 conspicuous is the small green fern, Polypodium polypodioides (L.) A. S. 

 Hitchc. ( = P. incanum Sw.) . Another common epiphyte is Tillandsia tenui- 

 folia L., with wiry leaves of a reddish color, that grows in dense tufts on the 

 limbs of the oak trees. The gray, flowing beards of the Florida moss, Den- 

 dropogon (Tillandsia) usneoides (L.) Raf., add to the gloom of such forests, 

 which drip water in rainy weather. The prevailing gray color of the forest is 

 heightened by the gray lichens that cover the bark of the large oak trees. 



Live-Oak Hammock Formation. This type of hammock is one of the series 

 beginning with the palmetto river hammock. The series consist of palmetto 

 hammock, live-oak-palmetto hammock, live-oak hammock. The live-oak ham- 

 mock is comparatively open, as far as the undergrowth is concerned, but the 

 abundance of epiphytes and the long festoons of the Spanish-moss fill up the 

 available light space, so that the open, orchard-like character of the forest does 

 not impress the observer. When this type of vegetation blends with certain 

 elements of the pineland, we have another type of formation, which perhaps 

 should be included with the dry hammock series, on the one hand, or with a 

 modified type of pine forest on the other. Perhaps it should be considered 

 distinct. 



Oak-Saw-Palmetto Sclerophyllous Forest Formation. Here the live-oak 

 trees are of smaller size and more scattered, although the epiphytic growth on 

 the oaks is as abundant as in the preceding type. This formation, however, 



