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VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 



dense stand along the banks of some river, creek, or rivulet, the water level 

 in the swamp being conditioned by the height of the stream. If the stream is a 

 small one, it may run dry in the dry season. The outline of such swamps 

 varies with the stream bank on which they are found. If the ground is flat 

 and flooded by the stream, the cypress swamp may cover considerable areas 

 in length and breadth. If the banks are steep, the cypress may grow in a nar- 

 row strip of trees on both sides of the stream. Where such grow along a 

 meandering stream, the snake-like, or sinuous course of the branch swamp 

 may be traced by its h'ght green color in summer, or by its open gray tones in 

 winter, as contrasted with the dark green of the pine forest about it. Two 

 branch cypress swamps of this character were investigated near Samville, 

 a small town north of the Caloosahatchee River and at Six-Mile Cypress, 12.8 

 kilometers (8 miles) south of Ft. Myers. 



The stream at Samville was almost atoeter wide. In sandy soil on both 

 sides of it and covering an area of about i hectare was a cypress swamp where 

 Taxodium distichum (L.) L. C. Rich, was the dominant tree. Associated with 

 the cypress was the pop-ash, Fraxinus caroliniana Mill., and the herbaceous 

 undergrowth, as collected by me, consisted of the grass, Syntherisma serotinum 

 Walt., the sedges, Cyperus echinatus (Ell.) Wood, C. paniculatus Rottb., 

 Rhynchospora perplexa Britt., and the plants, Ascyrum hypericoides L., Sab- 

 batia campanulata (L.) Torn, Gratiola ramosa Walt., Dianthera crassifolia 

 Chapm., Conoclinum dichotomum Chapm., Pluchea foetida (L.) B. S. P., and 

 Coreopsis Leavenworthii T. & G. 



Six-Mile Cypress is at the northern edge of the Big Cypress region and its 

 flora is probably somewhat similar to that found in the Big Cypress proper. 

 Six-Mile Cypress drains into Hendry Creek, which empties into Estero Bay 

 on the Gulf of Mexico. In June, 1912, when Six Mile Cypress was visited, 

 it was inundated with water and to study its vegetation the writer waded up to 

 his waist in water. The swamp-cypress, Taxodium distichum, was the dominant 

 tree, and its knees were plentifully distributed through the swamp. One knee 

 was of a n-shaped, or yoke form, the curved upper part being covered with a 

 gray lichen, Parmelia sp. Such a knee suggests those that are formed experi- 

 mentally in sour-gum trees and in the roots of maize, when they are flooded with 

 water. Associated with the cypress, draped with Spanish-moss, Dendropogon us- 

 neoides (L.) Raf., were the palmetto, Sabal palmetto (Walt.) R. & S., laurel-oak, 

 Quercus laurifolia Michx., the red-maple, Acer rubrum L., the pop-ash, Fraxinus 



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