FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 81 
VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 
important bearing on the consideration of the succession of vegetation types 
in South Florida. 
SALT MARSH FORMATION 
True salt marshes, such as exist along the open bays and estuaries of the 
North Atlantic coast of North America and of similar physiognomy, exist in 
the southern coastal states according to the observations of the writer near 
Charleston, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, Jacksonville, and St. Aug- 
ustine, Florida, where notes were made of the principal species of plants. It 
was noted that Spartina stricta (Ait.) Roth (=S. glabra Muhl.), as in the 
north, fringes the open channels, while as associated elements of this vegetation 
we find Salicornia ambigua Michx., Atriplex hastata L., Distichlis spicata 
(L.) Greene, and Baccharis halimifolia L. Such species as Juncus Roemerianus 
Scheele, Batis maritima L., Iva frutescens L., and Borrichia frutescens (L.) 
DC. are constituents. The rough map of the plant formations of the east 
coast of Florida made as a result of three trips to the south indicates that salt 
marshes of the usual type occur as far south as Cape Canaveral (opposite 
Titusville) in latitude 28° 30’ North, and probably, although the notes do not 
give any data, as far south as Indian River Inlet, 27° 30’ North. Such salt 
marshes are north of the extreme northern limit of the red-mangrove, Rhizo- 
phora mangle L., which, as previously intimated, ranges north to the St. Lucie 
River in latitude 27° то’ North. Indian River Inlet, therefore, represents ap- 
proximately the southern limit of true salt marshes uninfluenced by man- 
grove vegetation. 
The salt marshes of the west coast of southern Florida were noted after 
passing Fort Ogden along the Peace River and Charlotte Harbor, where they 
blend with the palmetto savannas in some localities and with pine savannas 
in others. The most conspicuous elements of these salt marshes are Juncus 
Roemerianus Scheele in pure association and the tall fern, Acrostichum aureum 
L. The tension line between the typic salt marsh and the saw palmetto forma- 
tion with a few scattered pines is a very sharp one. A difference of 30 centi- 
meters in surface level is sufficient to alter the physiognomy of the vegetation 
entirely. At Punta Gorda is found a pine savanna blending with the nearby salt 
marsh formation. Similar salt marshes are found along Billy Creek near Ft. 
Myers. Here the concave bend of the stream is occupied by mangrove vegeta- 
tion, while across the creek the convex curve is characterized by a salt marsh, 
