FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 
VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 
22 
Inside of the barrier beaches and between them and the mainland 
are shallow lagoons, or bays, which are gradually filled with sand blown 
over the beaches, or by accumulations of organic material derived from 
salt marsh vegetation, or from that collected by the roots of the red-man- 
grove, which in some places is an important agent in land building. In 
Florida, these lagoons are designated rivers if they are narrow and long, 
or lakes, bays, or sounds, if they are short and broad. The geographic se- 
quence of such lagoons along the east coast of Florida south of 27° 30’ north 
latitude is as follows: Indian River (St. Lucie Sound), Jupiter River, Lake 
Worth, Boca Ratonas Lagoon, Hillsboro River, New River Sound, Dumfound- 
ling Bay, Biscayne Bay, Cards Sound, Barnes Sound. A number of important, 
but short, rivers that take their rise in the Everglades flow east and empty into 
these land-locked sounds. They are, proceeding from north to south: St. 
Lucie River, Jupiter River, Hillsboro River, Cypress Creek, New River 
(with its several branches), Snake Creek, Arch Creek, Little River, Miami 
River, Snapper Creek, Black Pool Creek, and Chis Cut. 
The high ground of the east coast of Florida is a narrow strip between 
the ocean and the Everglades. This region is formed of Palm Beach lime- 
stone, a light-colored, hard to friable limestone extending from St. Lucie River 
south to Delray and covered near the coast with loose wind-blown sand that 
rises into hills of considerable height. From Delray south to Homestead, and 
including the Everglade keys west of that place, the underlying rock is Miami 
limestone, while a tongue of Pleistocene and Recent sand extends along Jup- 
iter River, Lake Worth and along shore to the Hillsboro River. The country 
between Lake Okeechobee and the coast, as indicated on the map, is one 
characterized by numerous small lakes of fresh water that have no outlet and 
that are not connected with each other. This geographic region will be dis- 
cussed more fully under the heading of geology. 
Lake Okeechobee is an irregular body of fresh water, about 36 miles long 
from north to south and about 30 miles wide from east to west and ranges in 
depth from about four to twenty feet.* A number of wooded islands are 
found at the south end of the lake. These have been named Observation, Rita, 
Kreamer and Torry islands. A number of streams empty into the lake. The 
principal are Taylor Creek, Kissimmee River, and Fisheating Creek. The 
* Heilprin, Angelo: Explorations on the West Coast of Florida and in the Okeechobee Wil- 
derness. Transactions Wagner Free Institute of Science, Vol. 1, Philadelphia, 1887. 
