A REPORT ON SOME ALLOCTHONOUS PEAT 
DEPOSITS OF FLORIDA" 
PART I: TOPOGRAPHICAL 
Cart C. ForRSsAItTH 
(WITH DIAGRAM) 
As an introduction to the following report? on the allocthonous 
peat deposits of Florida, it seems advisable to discuss, very briefly, 
the geological and climatic conditions which obtain in this region, 
in so far as they bear a significant relation to the deposition of peat. 
‘The entire state lies wholly within the Atlantic coastal plain, 
which extends, as an area of varying width, from Long Island ww 
Texas, and represents a region of more or less recent origin, gen- 
erally flat or rolling in character, with little or no evidence of 
folding or faulting. A stratum of Vicksburg or later limestone 
forms a continuous deposit which is now covered with Pliocene 
clay or Pleistocene sand, the latter being predominant at the 
surface (4). The gently rolling country forms numerous depres- 
sions which are below the level of the water table, and consequently 
contain a permanent water supply in the form of lakes. In the 
case of depressions above this water table, or not sufficiently far 
below it to form lakes by the above-mentioned plan, the lime- 
stone may be locally dissolved so as to form an outlet for the 
continuous underground water system, and in the manner of a 
natural artesian well a body of water is maintained to which 
there is no apparent external inlet. This condition is illustrated 
by the well known Silver Springs near Ocala. There are many 
other instances, also, where the limestone strata may have been 
locally dissolved by the action of surface or underground water 
* Contributions from the Laboratories of Plant Morphology of Harvard University. 
* The writer wishes to express his sincere thanks to the Committee on Sheldon 
Traveling Fellowships of Harvard University for their kindness in granting to him @ 
Sheldon Traveling Fellowship for 1914-1915, the stipend of which made possible an 
investigation of the peat deposits of Florida. 
Botanical Gazette, vol. 62] [32 
