PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT. 
239 
CALCAREOUS WATER. 
(PLATE 20) 
Limestone, whether in the soil or in the water, nearly always 
has a marked effect on vegetation, many species of plants being 
peculiar to calcareous habitats, or entirely absent from them, and 
others much commoner or rarer in such places than elsewhere. In 
Florida limestone occurs in all sorts of relations to soil and to¬ 
pography, and the opportunities for studying its effects on vegeta¬ 
tion are unsurpassed. 
This State is noted for its many large limestone springs with 
beautiful bluish-tinged transparent streams issuing from them. 
These are numerous in the Gulf hammock region, fairly common 
in the West Florida limestone region and the lime-sink region 
of the peninsula, and occasional in several other regions. Some 
of our calcareous streams have steep banks, and no place for peat 
to accumulate, but others, especially in the flat Gulf hammock 
region, are bordered by extensive swamps. The fluctuations of 
calcareous streams are very much less than those of muddy 
streams.* 
The plants listed below were observed either along Spring 
Creek (a few miles east of Marianna) in Jackson County, or in or 
near the Gulf hammock region, or both. 
TREES 
Tax odium distichum (cypress) 
Acer rubrum (maple) 
Liquidambccr Styraciflua (sweet 
gum) 
Magnolia glauca (bay) 
Carpinus Caroliniana (ironwood) 
Ulmus Floridana (elm) 
Quercus nigra (water oak) 
Celtis sp. (hackberry) 
Fraxinus Caroliniana? (ash) 
Fraxinus sp. 
Sabal Palmetto (cabbage palmetto) 
Quercus Michauxii (swamp chest¬ 
nut oak) 
Pinus Taeda (short-leaf pine'' 
Juniperus Virginiana (cedar) 
SMALL TREES 
Ilex Cassine (swamp holly) Salix longipest (willow) 
Viburnum obovatum 
♦According to U. S. Geol. Surv. Water Supply Paper No. 242, pp. 132-135, the 
outlet of Silver Spring fluctuated only 1.65 feet during 1907. At a stage a little 
above the mean it was discharging 608 cubic feet a second. During the same 
year the Suwannee River at White Springs (where it is essentially non-calca- 
reous) fluctuated 18.9 feet, with a discharge varying from 18 to 8160 cubic feet a 
second. ! . m ; 1 i *i 
