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the vicinity of Camp Longview which is situated about four miles 
north of Camp Jackson. We revisited several of the more in- 
teresting hammocks investigated last year, and found that the 
fears expressed in a previous report* concerning the probable 
destruction of these hammocks were in several cases well founded. 
The larger trees of a few of the more important hammocks 
have been cut out; thus by letting in the direct sunlight, several 
men have destroyed in a few days, the results which it took 
nature thousands of years to accomplish. However, in these 
ruins we were rewarded by finding species of West Indian 
flowering plants not previously collected on the North American 
mainland as well as considerable cryptogamic material which had 
not yet been wholly parched by the sun 
Our recent explorations in that previously little known portion 
of Florida have acquainted us with many interesting and useful 
facts connected with plant relationships and distribution in addi- 
conservatories of the Garden. Some of the facts seem to be 
sufficient general interest to record here. 
In considering this region one should remember that it consists 
of a slightly elevated ridge scarcely over 40 miles in length and 
from two to six miles in width, bounded on the east by Biscayne 
Bay and on the west by the Everglades. Compared with the 
59,268 square miles of the state the area of this ridge is insig- 
nificant and up to the present only portions of less than 75 square 
miles have been botanically explored; but this restricted area 
has yielded nearly 800 species of flowering plants, or fully one 
fourth of the 3,000 species of flowering plants known to grow 
naturally within the state. The flora is strikingly different from 
territory, and is to some extent endemic. For example, such 
relatively large families both well represented and generally dis- 
tributed in the state, as Melanthacez, Caryophyllacee, Ranun- 
culacee and Ericaceze are wholly wanting or represented by a 
single species. Such widely distributed genera as Ranunculus 
with 9 species in the other parts of the state, Crategus with 47 
* Jour. N. Y. Bot. Gard. 5: No. 51, 1904. 
