FREE INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE 
VEGETATION OF SOUTH FLORIDA 
163 
The stations at Ft. Myers and at Jupiter are both north of the main body 
of the Everglades, and no doubt show from 2° to 4° lower temperature than 
would be registered in the center of the 'Glades. The minimum temperature 
here is higher than that of the sugar district in Louisiana south of New Or- 
leans, where cane is seldom injured by frost. 
The two preceding tables give the records of the rainfall at Kissimmee, 
in the northern part of the water-shed, and at Jupiter, on the east coast 
opposite Lake Okeechobee, for a period of nine years, and represent fairly well 
the rainfall that may be anticipated in the Everglades: 
The average annual rainfall of the Everglades portion of the State is about 
63 inches (160 cm.). The so-called dry season, or portion of the year in which 
there is the least rainfall, occurs between the months of November and March, 
during which time the normal precipitation is about 11.5 inches (29 cm.), 
ranging from 1.5 to 2.5inches (4-7 cm.) per month. During this season portions 
of the prairie lands are planted to vegetables, principally tomatoes, which are 
more profitable for shipping to the northern market, and when properly fertilized 
produce large crops. The remainder of the year these lands are frequently 
covered with water and are largely abandoned until the opening of the winter 
season, when they are again plowed and planted. 
Vegetation of the Everglades (Plate VII, Fig. 2; Plate VIII, Fig. 1).—The 
Everglades is a vast saw-grass marsh, or perhaps we may call it a wet 
prairie, extending in unbroken formation in all directions to the horizon, or 
sky line, as out at sea. The Everglades, the location of which is shown on 
the map, is a sea of the sedge, or saw-grass, which is the dominant plant over 
an immense area. It will be noted that the Everglades vegetation almost com- 
pletely surrounds Lake Okeechobee. It sends a long extension northwestward 
back of West Palm Beach through the Loxahatchee Marsh to join Jupiter 
River, which finds its way to the Atlantic Ocean through Jupiter Inlet. The 
Glades back of West Palm Beach are thus connected with one of the principal 
drainage channels leading from the central part of the Everglades. On the 
south, the Everglades blend with the coastal prairie, and in the southwest, they 
almost reach the Gulf of Mexico. A deep embayment of the Everglades along 
their western border is found projecting westward, so as to join the area of 
lowland covered by the Big Cypress Swamp, and another extension projects, 
so as to include Lake Hicpochee. Upon the muck rests a sheet of water 
