TRANSACTIONS OF WAGNER 



VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 



two months equals 24 divided by 62 equals 0.387 inch. The difference be- 

 tween this amount and 0.30 inch, the amount removed by evaporation, is 0.087 

 inch, which is the mean daily run-off from the entire watershed. This amount 

 of run-off, although not obtained by actual measurements, is supported by the 

 results of the most careful experiments that have been carried on in this 

 country, Europe, and India." 



The western and southern shores of Lake Okeechobee are shallow and 

 grown up to partly submerged grasses and sedges, while north of the outlet 

 canal into Lake Hicpochee, it is bordered by the true saw-grass vegetation of 

 the Everglades, so that here its shore line is ill-defined in wet weather. The 

 grasses, sedges and other shore plants grow out some distance in the shallow 

 water along the shore. Occasional detached masses of such vegetation on 

 sand flats form small submerged islands with the tops of the plants projecting 

 above the surface of the water. South Bay is also pretty well filled with pond- 

 weed and lined with muddy shores. 



Lake Shore Plant Association. The sedgy shore of the southern end of the 

 lake is characterized by the presence of the following plants collected by the 

 writer on June 22, 1912: the maiden-cane, Panicum hemitomon Schult., 

 which grows in close associations, Scirpus validus Vahl., Sagittaria lancifolia L., 

 the floating pondweed, Potamogeton lucens L., the wampee, or pickerel weed, 

 Pontederia cordata L., the bonnet, or spatterdock, Nymphaea (Nuphar) ad- 

 vena Soland, the lizard's tail, Saumrus cernuus L., and water-pennywort, 

 Hydrocotyle umbellata L. 



Back of the shore line in the soil more or less disturbed by cultivation is a 

 weedy strip about 6-20 meters wide, in which is found a mixture of native and 

 introduced plants that grow as weeds. The most remarkable plant of the list 

 is the so-called careless weed, Acnida australis A. Gray, which grows to a 

 height of 4.5 meters (15 feet) and with a stem diameter of over 3 decimeters. 

 Several other weeds grow with almost equal rankness. This weedy strip 

 continues along the banks of the canal, piled with dredged material on which 

 for some miles south of the lake the weeds grow until the muck of the Ever- 

 glades becomes so loose and watery that the material dredged out of the 

 canals gradually sinks out of sight. Under such conditions, the canal bank is 

 formed by the flat surface of the Everglades and its exclusive saw-grass vegeta- 

 tion, and here the weeds are not found. 



