408 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



Septembe 



ish, and fruit without protection, the 

 region is truly tropical. 



The territory referred to in this article 

 is unique in another respect. It is the 

 only region of coral formation in the 

 United States. These two peculiarities 

 combine to render it a region of extreme 

 interest to foresters and botanists. Here 

 is field for research for many years to 

 come, where many phases of plant 

 ecology may be studied to better advan- 

 tage than elsewhere on the continent. 

 One can pass through all the climatic 

 zones from the Boreal to the Tropical 

 in going from the region of the proposed 

 Appalachian Park to Biscayne Bay in a 

 little more than twenty- four hours. 

 Were the roads all good, it would be little 

 more than a pleasant automobile trip. 



The part of Florida to which this 

 article refers lies between the Everglades 

 and the Florida Strait, and includes the 

 territory around Miami, and southward 

 to Cape Sable, including many coral 

 keys, mangrove islands, and wooded 

 islands in the Everglades. 



The vegetation of this district from a 

 forestry standpoint may be divided into 

 three distinct types the hammock, the 

 pineland, and the mangrove swamp. It 

 is, of course, impossible in so short a 

 space to give more than a superficial 

 description of these types. 



The hammock is undoubtedly the 

 climax forest. It represents the type 

 that the rest would in time become were 

 it not for fire, flood, and other detri- 

 mental and retarding influences. 



The hammock is a tropical jungle, 

 consisting of species of trees character- 

 istic of the Antillean flora. Most of 

 these species produce a vigorous coppice, 

 and the ground is covered with a rich 

 black mold resulting from the leaves and 

 detritus of these hardwoods. It is in the 

 hammock where one finds mastic, crab- 

 wood, satin-leaf, gumbo-limbo, prince- 

 wood, white wood, manchincet, and 

 many other rare and in many instances 

 valuable woods. 



This hammock may be found in 

 patches in the pineland, on islands in 

 the Everglades, on the keys north of 

 Bahia Honda. Strange to say, the south- 

 ernmost keys are like the pineland of 

 the mainland in character. Sand Key, 



seven miles to the south-southwest o 

 Key West, is the southernmost point it 

 the United States. Although all th< 

 keys north of Bahia Honda were onc< 

 covered with a dense tropical growth 

 much of it has been cut for pineappl< 

 clearings. In many places, especially 

 in Key Largo, it is still in virgin condi 

 tion. Wherever these keys are abov< 

 tide water, the growth is hammock 

 when subject to overflow, it is mangrov* 

 swamp. Some keys are all hammock 

 others are all mangrove, and others hav; 

 hammock centers fringed with man 

 grove. 



For half a century the timber on thes< 

 keys has been cut, allowed to dry, anc 

 is then burnt. In the ashes a finecroj 

 is produced, and fertilizers have nevei 

 been used. The fact that pineappk 

 patches are very combustible has causec 

 these natives to burn cautiously. It 

 referring to the vegetation of these keys 

 I cannot refrain from quoting the fol 

 lowing from an article by the botanisi 

 Curtiss in ' Garden and Forest," vol 

 ume I, page 279 : 



"A person who is acquainted onl) 

 with the vegetation of more northerr 

 states, or with that of northern Florida 

 in traversing these keys, will fine 

 scarcely a tree or herb identical with, 01 

 even resembling those with which he 

 has been acquainted. He may heai 

 familiar names in use b)^ the iuhab 

 itants, such as cherry, mulberry, anc 

 cedar, but on examination he will fine 

 the species thus designated to be en- 

 tirely different from those which he has 

 known by such names before. The 

 curiosity is piqued at every step b} 

 some unfamiliar and interesting form oi 

 vegetation, and if the tourist be accom- 

 panied by one of the inhabitants he will 

 learn much of the popular lore regard- 

 ing names and uses, for these people 

 are remarkably intelligent in regard tc 

 the vegetable and animal life of the re- 

 gion they inhabit. It will be found that 

 .almost all the adult inhabitants come 

 from the Bahamas, that nearly all the 

 trees and other plants are common to 

 those islands, and, in short, that these 

 islands have much more in common 

 with the Lesser Antilles than with the 

 Florida mainland. 



