CHAPTER IX 

 The Origin of tHe HammocKs 



IF fire that sometimes destroys them is in the 

 end the friend of the piney woods of Florida, 

 it is uncompromisingly the enemy of the 

 hammocks. If there were no forest fires 

 the dry pinelands would soon be captured and 

 occupied by hammock growth. I believe that no 

 hammock originates (in Lower Florida at least) 

 where there is not some real protection from forest 

 fires. 



The word "hammock" is generally applied in 

 Florida to the forests of broad-leaved trees as dis- 

 tinguished from pine woods. There are several 

 kinds of hammock in the State ; in our part we have 

 "high" and "low" hammocks and each may be 

 rocky or not. We also have "heavy" hammock, 

 consisting of tall, straight trees closely huddled 

 together, and "scrub," in which the dense growth 

 is low and tangled. On the keys and along the 



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