234 
FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—THIRD ANNUAL REPORT. 
SWAMPS WITH MUDDY WATER. 
Most Florida streams flow their whole length through sandy 
or rocky regions, and thus have no chance to become muddy. 
But the Apalachicola River, which has its sources among the red 
clay hills of Middle Georgia, is always muddy, and the Choctawhat- 
chee and Escambia, which rise in the Eocene hills of southern 
Alabama, are quite muddy at times, especially in recent years 
since so much of the forest around their headwaters has been de¬ 
stroyed to make room for crops. The Ocklocknee and Suwannee 
have some clayey land in their drainage basins, and may become 
a little turbid at times, but the amount of mud carried by them in 
the course of the year is insignificant. 
All muddy streams are subject to considerable fluctuation, and 
the vegetation along their banks is quite different from that which 
borders the more steady streams. Towards their mouths, how¬ 
ever, the fluctuations become less and less, for it is obviously im¬ 
possible for any river, no matter how swollen, to change the level 
of the ocean appreciably. Although we are at present unable 
to explain it, there is a marked difference between the vegetation 
of alluvial and that of estuarine swamps, even on the same stream. 
ALLUVIAL SWAMPS. 
(plate 19.1) 
The subjoined list of alluvial swamp plants is compiled from 
notes taken along the Apalachicola River in Jackson, Gadsden and 
Liberty Counties, within a few miles of River Junction and As- 
palaga. (I have seen very little of the swamps of the Escambia 
and Choctawhatchee Rivers, but I have no doubt that in most re¬ 
spects they are intermediate between the Apalachicola and some 
of the smaller rivers which flow southward across Middle Florida, 
such as the Ocklocknee). 
trees 
Taxodium distichum (cypress) 
Nyssa uniflora (tupelo gum) 
(mostly in sloughs) 
Salix nigra (willow) (mostly on 
banks) 
Planera aqua^ca 
Liquidambar Styraciflua (sweet 
gum) 
Quercus nigra (water oak) (most¬ 
ly in slightly drier spots) 
Quercus lyrata (swamp post oak) 
Platanus occidentals (sycamore) 
Crataegus■ viridis (red haw) 
Populus deltoides (cottonwood) 
Hicoria aquatica (swamp hickory) 
Gleditschia aquatica (locust) 
Carpinus Carolimiana (ironwood) 
. Ulnius Americana f (elm) 
Celtis Mississippiensis? (hack- 
berry) 
Fraxinus AwcAcana ? ( ash) 
Acer saccharmum (maple) (most¬ 
ly on banks.) 
Betula nigra (birch) (mostly on 
banks) 
