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FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 
VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 
143 
dense stand along the banks of some river, creek, or rivulet, the water level 
in the swamp being conditioned by the height of the stream. If the stream is a 
small one, it may run dry in the dry season. The outline of such swamps 
varies with the stream bank on which they are found. If the ground is flat 
and flooded by the stream, the cypress swamp may cover considerable areas 
in length and breadth. Ifthe banks are steep, the cypress may grow in a nar- 
Tow strip of trees on both sides of the stream. Where such grow along a 
meandering stream, the snake-like, or sinuous course of the branch swamp 
may be traced by its light green color in summer, or by its open gray tones in 
winter, as contrasted with the dark green of the pine forest about it. Two 
branch cypress swamps of this character were investigated near Samville, 
a small town north of the Caloosahatchee River and at Six-Mile Cypress, 12.8 
kilometers (8 miles) south of Ft. Myers. 
The stream at Samville was almost a meter wide. In sandy soil on both 
sides of it and covering an area of about 1 hectare was a cypress swamp where 
Taxodium distichum (L.) L. C. Rich. was the dominant tree. Associated with 
the cypress was the pop-ash, Fraxinus caroliniana Mill., and the herbaceous 
undergrowth, as collected by me, consisted of the grass, Syntherisma serotinum 
Walt., the sedges, Cyperus echinatus (ElL) Wood, C. paniculatus Rottb., 
Rhynchospora perplexa Britt., and the plants, Ascyrum hypericoides L., Sab- 
batia campanulata (L.) Torr., Gratiola ramosa Walt., Dianthera crassifolia 
Chapm., Conoclinum dichotomum Chapm., Pluchea foetida (L.) B. S. P., and 
Coreopsis Leavenworthii T. & G. 
Six-Mile Cypress is at the northern edge of the Big Cypress region and its 
flora is probably somewhat similar to that found in the Big Cypress proper. 
Six-Mile Cypress drains into Hendry Creek, which empties into Estero Bay 
оп the Gulf of Mexico. In June, 1912, when Six Mile Cypress was visited, 
it was inundated with water and to study its vegetation the writer waded up to 
his waist in water. The swamp-cypress, Taxodium distichum, was the dominant 
tree, and its knees were plentifully distributed through the swamp. One knee 
was of a N-shaped, or yoke form, the curved upper part being covered with a 
gray lichen, Parmelia sp. Such a knee suggests those that are formed experi- 
mentally in sour-gum trees and in the roots of maize, when they are flooded with 
water. Associated with the cypress, draped with Spanish-moss, Dendropogon us- 
neoides (L.) Raf., were the palmetto, Sabal palmetto (Walt.) R. & S., laurel-oak, 
Quercus laurifolia Michx., the red-maple, Acer rubrum L., the pop-ash, Fraxinus 
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