212 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



The border of the forest is almost everywhere a 

 dense scrub, consisting of low-grown live oaks, 

 red bay, cabbage palmetto, the common sumac 

 (Rhus obtusifolia), prickly ash (Zanthoxylum), 

 Trema, French mulberry (Callicarpa americana), 

 wild coral tree {Erythrina arborea) and one or two 

 species of lantanas. There are several vines in 

 the border thicket, some unpleasantly thorny, and 

 among them are species of smilax and of the 

 unpleasant Pisonia, so it is very difficult to pene- 

 trate the inhospitable tangle. 



The floor at the border of the forest is rocky and 

 uneven, there being but little sand and leaf mold 

 in the depressions. In this the trees get but a 

 poor hold and when overturned by a storm they 

 tear up the limestone much as do the trees in the 

 pineland. As we go farther into the wood we find 

 an increasing number of tropical trees and a 

 decreasing proportion of the warm temperate 

 forms; the growth becomes taller, straighter, and 

 closer. 



In the newer and more open part of the forest 

 epiphytes are most abundant; with most favorable 

 conditions they burden the trees almost to the 

 breaking point. In South Florida there are 



