PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT. 
257 
borough Counties. The large a-ncl almost impenetrable Bay Swamp, 
in the northern part of Columbia and Baker Counties, which is 
mentioned in a few descriptions of Florida, but rarely shown on 
maps, probably consists at least in part of this type of vegetation. 
These bays are generally in comparatively level sandy country, 
but how they are formed is still a mystery. They bear considerable 
resemblence to the pocosins of eastern North Carolina, but those, 
too, are not well understood. 
The following list of plants is compiled from one slash-pine 
bog between Ellsworth Junction and Astatula in Lake County, two 
between Auburndale and Carter’s, in Polk County, and one about 
two miles west of Plant City, Hillsborough County: 
TALL TREES 
Pinus Elliottii (slash pine) 
MEDIUM-SIZED TREES. 
Nyssd biflora (black gum) Acer rubrum (maple) 
SMALL TREES 
Magnolia glauca (bay) 
SHRUBS AND VINES 
Smilax laurifolia (bamboo vine) Viburnum nudum (possum haw) 
Pieris nitida Vitis rotundifolia (muscadine) 
HERBS 
Anchistea Virginica (a fern) 
Osmunda cinnamomea (a fern) 
Xyris fimbriata 
Osmunda regalis (a fern) 
MOSSES 
Sphagnum (perhaps several species) 
The trees, shrubs and vines often grow very densely, making 
such places almost impenetrable. The herbs are relatively in¬ 
conspicuous, and the Sphagnum carpets the ground everwhere. 
Samples of peat were taken from a bog of this kind about two 
miles west of Auburndale (locality No. 8). At the point testej it 
was about ten feet deep, with a bottom of very sticky black mud. 
This place (and perhaps most others of the same kind) seems to 
be subjected to occasional fires, which do great damage to the broad¬ 
leaved trees and shrubs—especially the bays—but not much to the 
pines. 
Erianthus sp. (a large grass) 
Gyro theca tinctoria (paint-root) 
Ludwigia lanceolate 
Cladium effusum (saw-grass) 
G17 
