36 A NATURE WOOING. 



"high hammock/' its general level is a few feet above 

 the surrounding marshes. If a "low hammock," it is 

 a marsh or swale. In either case it is usually under- 

 lain with marl or coquina rock, and covered with a 

 rich vegetable mold. These hammocks form the rich- 

 est portions of Florida. On them, or in them, grow 

 all the hardwood timber. In contra-distinction to the 

 hammocks are the "barrens" or "pine lands," whose 

 soil is of sand alone or of sand mixed with a small 

 percentage of marine salts and organic matter. 

 Humus, or vegetable mold, is the needed constituent 

 of the barrens. It is always present in quantity in 

 the hammocks. Hence the latter, when cleared of 

 their timber and cultivated, are profusely productive 

 of almost every kind of vegetable. Such land, when 

 cleared within two miles of Ormond, sells readily at 

 $100 or more per acre, whereas the sand-covered 

 land can be had for one-tenth that sum, and for the 

 most part is dear at any price. The underlying marl 

 and cemented mass of sea shells seem to yield con- 

 stantly certain elements which find their way to the 

 surface of the hammock and form an abundance of 

 plant food. The soil can, therefore, be used for 

 years, whereas two or three seasons are sufficient to 

 deplete the sandy soils of what little organic matter 

 they possess. 



Soon after starting, Mr. B. shot a pileated wood- 

 pecker, or log cock, Ceophlceus pileatus L., from the 

 top of a dead cabbage palmetto. It is a male, some- 



