FERN HUNTING IN THE PHOSPHATE CountTRY 43 
Asplenium myriophyllum. The sight was well worth 
the ride through hot sunshine, followed by soaking rain. 
At about the same distance southward from Lake 
Tsala-Apopka is an interesting fern hammock. As 
this term is frequently misunderstood, it may be well 
to borrow a definition from a Report of the State Geo- 
logical Survey. ‘‘A hammock is nothing more nor less 
than a certain type of vegetation; namely, a compara- 
tively dry soil (or at least not wet enough to be called 
a swamp), in a region where open pine forests predom- 
inate. The ground in such places is always covered 
with more or less humus derived from the trees, but 
immediately under the humus the soil may be either 
sand, clay, marl, or limestone.”’ 
After a long ride through the “cut-over’’ lands of 
several phosphate plants, where the stumps of the dead 
pine trees rise at intervals over the low oak scrub, the 
lofty trees and the green leafage of the hammock is a 
welcome sight. In this moist shade are jagged, irregu- 
lar rocks covered with ferns. On fallen trees, and 
along the lofty branches, droop the graceful fronds of 
Polypodium plumula; while in the crevices of the rocks, 
and on the crags, thick as grass, grow Dryopteris patens, 
Asplenium platyneuron, with its brown stipes; A. par- 
vulum, with shining black stipes, and very narrow 
frond: Adiantum tenerum, so strong and tall that it 
seems abnormal in outline; Pteris Cretica, with long 
lance-like pinnae appearing like some stout, short- 
bladed grass; Asplenium firmum, well-named from the 
plain, undivided form of its pinnae; and, most beautiful 
of all, the delicate, feathery Asplenium myriophyllum. 
A few miles further south, following the track of the 
Atlantic Coast Line, is the flag-station of Pineola: no 
town, nor post office, but simply a station at the southern 
edge of Citrus County. About a mile to the east of the 
station, and near the left bank of the Withlacoochee 
