PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT. 
251 
HERBS 
Tillandsia usneoides (Spanish Osmunda regalis (a fern) 
moss) Vallisneria spiralis (eel-grass) (un- 
Saururus cernuus der water) 
Lorinseria areolata (a fern) Piaropus crassipes (water hya- 
Rhynchospora corniculata cinth) (introduced) 
Centella repanda 
x 4 bout a mile south of Palatka the peat is about 20 feet deep 
at the water’s edge, and of course of very good quality, because 
the St. Johns River is never muddy. (See analysis under locality 
No. 8.) In such an accessible locality it ought to be valuable. 
About a mile north of Palatka the river is bordered in part by 
saw-grass marshes, and a plant for the manufacture of fertilizer 
filler from peat has recently been erected there. Similar marshes 
probably occur at many other places below Palatka, but I have not 
had opportunity to examine any of them. There are extensive 
peat deposits on two tributaries of the lower St. Johns, namely, 
Julington Creek and Crescent Lake, which might also be classed as 
estuarine, but they are so unique and interesting in some ways 
that discussion of them will be deferred to a subsequent chapter. 
NON-CALCAREOUS SEEPING SWAMPS. 
Wherever the bottom of a valley dips slightly below the general 
ground-water level the water slowly oozes out and flows away, 
and certain plants which prefer a perpetually saturated soil es¬ 
tablish themselves. In Florida such places are practically im¬ 
mune from the fires which periodically sweep through the pine 
forests, and a comparatively dense growth of trees and shrubs is 
the result. The decaying wood and leaves from these keeps form¬ 
ing peat, the thickness of which is limited only by the nature of the 
surrounding topography and the height to which the ground-water 
level can be raised by capillary attraction. In the final stage of 
such a swamp the upper layers of peat would be dry enough for 
the process of humification to set in, and the vegetation would ap¬ 
proach the hammock type. It is quite likely that many of our low 
hammocks have had just such a history. 
The seeping swamps of Florida are of many different' types. 
The commonest are those of branches and small creeks, which are 
frequent in nearly all parts of the state, but need not be described 
here, as they are too shallow to be considered as sources of peat. 
A few of the other types, with deeper peat, will now be described 
separately. 
