TRANSACTIONS OF WAGNER 

 144 



VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 



caroliniana L., Rapanea guyanensis Aubl. The shrubs collected beneath the 

 trees were the waxberry, Cerothamnus (Myrica) ceriferus (L.) Small, Ilex 

 cassine L., and the buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis L. Two ferns were 

 gathered here, viz., the Virginian chain-fern, Anchistea virginica (L.) Presl. 

 ( = Woodwardia virginica (L.) Presl.), and Blechnum serrulatum L. C. Rich. 

 The true aquatic plants are Sagittaria lancifolia L. and Pontederia cordata L. 

 The true grasses and sedges are represented by Tripsacum dactyloides L., 

 Coelorachis (Manisuris) rugosa (Nutt.) Nash and Rhynchospora corniculata 

 (Lam.) A. Gray. The epiphytic plants of the Six-Mile Cypress are repre- 

 sented in my collection by Tillandsia fasciculata Sw., Epidendrum tampense 

 Lindl. (=Encyclia tampense Lindl.) Small (Plate VIII, Fig. 2). The list 

 of secondary herbaceous species is completed by Boehmeria cylindrica (L.) 

 Willd., Ly thrum lanceolatum Ell. and Teucrium Nashii Kearney. 



Cypress Ponds. These are very numerous in the South Florida flatwoods. 

 They are of various sizes and shapes, but usually approximately circular, or 

 elliptic, and from .4 to 40 hectares (one to a hundred acres) in extent. In 

 wet weather the water in them may be as much as 6 dm. (2 feet) deep, while 

 in the late spring they are usually dry, or nearly so. 



Cypress Bays. Cypress bays (Plate VIII, Fig. i) are related to cypress 

 ponds, but seem to differ chiefly, as far as environmental conditions are con- 

 cerned, in being situated on deeper sand (cypress ponds generally have clay, 

 sometimes rock under them within a few feet of the surface) and having less 

 fluctuation of water level, and the water seems to be more acid than in cypress 

 ponds. Roland M. Harper* gives the constituent plants of such bays in the 

 northern part of Florida. 



Cypress Heads. Like pine islands, cypress also appears in isolated clumps, 

 or groves called heads. These heads always indicate low wet ground, which is 

 usually covered with water during the entire year. Such a head was investi- 

 gated 9 kilometers (six miles) south of Ft. Myers in the middle of the pine forest. 

 The dominant tree is Taxodium imbricarium (Plate IX, Fig. i, for corroboration 

 of this statement) with a base that is swollen into a bulb-like enlargement with 

 a flat rim above on which a fern, Blechnum serrulatum L. C. Rich, was found on 

 June 12, 1912 (Plate IX, Fig. i). An epiphytic bromeliad, Tillandsia fasci- 

 culata Sw., was attached to the trunk above and an epiphytic orchid, Epiden- 



* Harper, Roland M. : Preliminary Report on Peat. 3rd Annual Report Florida Geological 

 Survey, 264. 



