Da e a 
AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
Vol. VIII. — AUGUST, 1874. — No. 8. 
eces DTD o 
NOTES ON THE FLORA OF SOUTHERN FLORIDA. 
BY FREDERICK BRENDEL. 
a 
Is the flora of Southern Florida and the Keys in reality North 
American or West Indian? One of the greatest authorities in 
botanical geography, Prof. Grisebach, in his latest work upon the 
distribution of plants (“ Vegetation der Erde,” 2, p. 340), as also 
in a previous one (“Die Geographische Verbreitung der Pflanzen 
West Indiens,” pp. 19 and 20), favors the former opinion. 
He says:—‘ The character of the vegetation of Florida is in 
general identical with that of Georgia and Carolina. But eight 
species of West Indian woody plants occur in Florida, and but six 
in Key West.* When the Northern Bahamas above 27° N. Lati- 
tude shall be explored it is probable that the difference between 
them and the neighboring main-land, but sixty-five English miles 
distant, will be yet more evident. This difference is not due to 
climate, nor yet to geological structure, for as the coast of Florida 
is surrounded by coral reefs, so has the archipelago of the Bahamas 
been built up by the same means. Why is it then that the vege- 
tation of the West Indies has possession of these islands and not 
of the equally near and similarly formed Keys of Florida? Even 
the few plants which are common to both occur also for the most 
. *In Florida, two Coccolobe, Pithecolobium Unguiscati, Guettardia elliptica, Psycho- 
bria lanceo » Myrsine læta, Jacquinia armillaris and Tournefortia gnapulodes ; in Key 
West, etc sanctum, Schafferia frutescens, Passiflora angustifolia, Exostemma 
Caribeum. . 
— 
according to Act of Congress, in the aw 1874, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF 
Summa in the he Office of the Librarian of Oon ongress, at Washington. 
AMER. es, VOL. VII. 29 (449) 
