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167 



VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 



tance is marked by mile posts erected along the banks of the canal, the 

 exact location of the different plant associations is thus made possible. 

 L. 0. painted on each of the sign boards refers to Lake Okeechobee; Ft. L., 

 to Ft. Lauderdale. The birds and other animals noted are given for the general 

 interest attached to such observations. Extensive notes were also made on 

 the map of the Everglade drainage district of Florida issued by the trustees 

 of the internal improvement fund, Nov., 1911. 



Phytogeographic Section Across the Everglades. The Lake Okeechobee 

 entrance to the North New River Canal is 98 kilometers (61 miles) from Ft. 

 Lauderdale. The first 5 to 6 kilometers (3 or 4 miles) of the canal is cut 

 through the custard-apple forest with its trees loaded with epiphytes. The 

 material dredged from the canal, and which forms its banks, has since the canal 

 was dug been covered with various weeds, some of which we have noted on a 

 previous page. The weeds are twined with dense masses of the moon-flower, 

 Calonyction (Ipomoea) aculeatum (L.) House, while in the canal the writer 

 noted Sagittaria lancifoliaL., some water-hyacinths, Piaropus crassipes (Mart.) 

 Britton, and cat-tails, Typha. The water-turkey was noted, which can swim 

 almost wholly submerged, and the great blue-heron flew out of the saw-grass. 

 After passing the custard-apple formation, previously described, we find that 

 it is fronted on the south by a willow strip which runs out into the Everglades. 

 Before us we see the illimitable stretches of the saw-grass. 



L. O. 6 Miles, L. 0. 7 Miles-L. O. 12 Miles. We passed unbroken saw- 

 grass with no hammocks. In June the Everglades in color resemble a large 

 field of grain just turning from its green, unripe condition to the brownish- 

 yellow ripe condition. Gifford compares the Everglades to a vast pancake 

 sliced in the middle by the canal.* Before us, as far as the eye can reach, is a 

 level prairie-like expanse of saw-grass. The red-wing blackbird was seen and 

 we startled a few buzzards feeding on alligator carcasses from which the hides 

 had been removed by hunters. 



L. 0. 13 Miles. The unbroken saw-grass continues. A transverse ditch 

 has been dug at every mile post through the dredged material, so as to drain 

 the water from the Glades into the canal. 



L. 0. i4~L. O. ig Miles. The landscape and the vegetation remain 

 unchanged. 



* Gi/ord, John: The Everglade Magazine. Oct., 1912. 



