FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 89 
VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 
even stand with an open crown admitting the light to the forest floor beneath 
(Plate II, Fig. 3, Plate IV). The trunk of the dominant pines is straight, 
tapering upward to a maximum height of 35 meters. The trunk diameter may 
reach 1.5 meters, but in the forest there are all ages of growth, so that the 
diameters vary widely. The bark of these trees is split into broad, flat, 
irregular plates (Plate III, Fig. 2) covered with reddish-brown scales; the 
inner layers are yellowish-gray to orange-brown and ball-like lumps of hard- 
ened resin is found on some of the trees. If one stands in the center of the 
forest and looks around, he sees in some places sandy soil covering the odlitic 
limestone, in other places, the rough nodules of the limestone projecting 
through the surface soil between the pine trees and the light-greens or dark- 
greens of the scattered saw-palmettos, shrubby and herbaceous vegetation of 
the forest floor (Plate IV). Above he sees the serried columns of the pine 
trees, which as they close together in the perspective distance, depending upon 
the closeness of the stand, give a flat, reddish-brown, background color, while 
above the crown of the trees against the blue of the sky, or against the woolly 
white cumulus clouds, is a prevailing yellowish-green color. The flowers open 
in January and February before the new leaves appear, so that in these months 
the prevailing color of the foliage above is lighter than at any other season 
of the year after the leaves which last about two years have become of adult 
size and color. In some districts where the trees are tapped for the small 
amount of crude turpentine, which they yield, the areas from which the bark 
has been cut to remove the turpentine are conspicuous as one looks in any di- 
rection through the forest of this handsomest of southeastern pines, known in 
different localities as bastard-pine, meadow-pine, pitch-pine, she-pine, slash- 
pine, spruce-pine and swamp-pine. 
Reproduction of this pine is generally very good. The seeds germinate 
readily into vigorous seedlings which grow rapidly and take entire possession, 
even with the presence of other competing species of pines. It promises to 
replenish the forest areas with young trees, which in forty years are ready for 
tapping, and which yield a wood with a coarse grain, easily infiltrated with 
creosote and other preservatives. Thus in the short time of forty years, a 
new forest replaces the old one. On the west coast, south and north of the 
Caloosahatchee River, the slash-pine mingles with the long-leaf pine, Pinus 
palustris Mill, which north of Punta Gorda and the east head of Charlotte 
Harbor is the dominant tree in pure forest except for a slight admixture of Pinus 
