Bahaman Region: Floridan Area, 699 
The keys on the western side of Bahia Honda are covered with low and thin forests com- 
posed of Pinus caribaea, en nz jucunda together with Serenoa serrulata and Myrica ceri- 
fera. The central portion of Big Pine Key, according to Stewardson Brown, is covered with 
Pinus caribaea (70—80 feet) with ai underneath and the same is true for Little Pine mei 
while Croton linearis, Galactia volubilis, Dolicholus parvifolius, Chamaecrista grammica, Mikani 
heterophylla, Pteridium caudatum, Dichromena colorata and Pteris longifolia are abundant ER 
in the pine lands of the keys. 
There are two types of pine barrens in Florida: first, the “Nat woods”, 
with numerous slight depressions, which are ponds in wet weather and are 
usually grown up with cypress and gum; second, the rolling barrens drained 
by small streams, which are bordered by almost impenetrable thickets and 
stretches of swamp’’). 
Hammock Formation. The hammocks consist of isolated groups of hard- 
wood trees, shrubs and vines. These hammocks have an overlying soil 
thicker than the pine-lands due to the accumulation of vegetal detritus, occa- 
sionally ı—2 feet deep, and they vary in size from an acre to many hundred 
acres, and are scattered as islands in the everglades and pine forests. The 
trees, shrubs and vines harbor a large number of plants of various categories. 
The growth of epiphytes is especially striking, for in numerous cases the tree 
trunks and branches are loaded with air plants, and the growth is so crowded 
that many of the orchids and bromeliads are forced to grow on the ground, 
or on the neighboring pine.trees. This hammock formation includes the great 
majority of flowering plants now known to be common to the West Indies 
and Florida. The area occupied by the hammocks is insignificant as com- 
pared with that of the pineland, yet there are nearly as many species of 
flowering plants growing in these small areas, as there are in the vast pine- 
lands. 
SMALL?) deseribes a hammock which is actually being destroyed by the excessive ee 
ment of epiphytes. The epiphytic bromeliads and orchids having taken possession of ev 
available bit of surface on the larger trees have broken to the ground, where the epiphytes com- 
pletely cover the floor of the hammock and the smaller trees beneath the larger ones. In addi- 
tion to the bromeliad-orchid flora, the hammocks are characterized by ferns of a tropic type, 
such as: Polypodium incanum (on oaks), P. ohylitiin Pteris eretica, Adiantum tenerum, Aspidium 
trifoliatum. Some of the species of ferns are confined to the trees, others to the curious and 
treacherous sink holes, while the ground is often anche with filmy ferns or gigantic sword 
ferns. Several of the hammocks are characterized by the presence of palms: Psendophoenix 
Sargentii (Elliott’s Key), Oreodoxa (Roystonea) regia (Royal Palm Hammock) and such Bronee 
as Dendrophylax Lindenii (on the trunks of the royal palm), Epidendrum nocturnum, E. rigidum. 
The gumbo limbo Bursera simaruba is a constituent of the hammocks on Boca Chica Key. 
The Great Gulf Hammock according to GARBER3) yielded the following plants: Chrysobalanus 
oblongifolius, Galactia Elliottii, Sclerolepis vertieillata, Boltonia diffusa, Senecio lobatus, Vaccinium 
tenellum, Sabbatia gracilis, Asclepias perennis, Sagittaria graminea, ee multiflorus, Smilax 
Beyrichii, Dichromena colorata, Rhynchospora macrostachya, Carex gigantea, C. oberokäeliäie C. 
verrucosa, Paspalum undulatum, Panicum gymnocarpum, etc. 
1) Currıss, A. H.: Among Florida Ferns. Plant World V: 68 April 190 2 
2) Smart, J. K.: Report upon further exploration of southern Florida. a New Yor 
Botanical Garden V: 157 August 1904. 
3) GARBER, A. P.: The April Flora of Cedar Keys, Fla. Botanical Gazette II: 112. 
