PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT. 
289 
HERBS 
Cladium effusum (saw-grass) 
Spartina Bakerif. (a grass) 
Eleocharis sp. 
Centella repanda 
Sagittaria lancifolia 
Eriocaulon compressum 
Lippia sp. 
Eleocharis sp. (very small) 
Pluchea camphorata 
FimhnstyUs spadiceo 
Ipomoea sagittata (morning-glory) 
Hibiscus Moscheutos? 
Osmunda regalis (a fern) 
Monniera Caroliniana 
Cyperus Has pan? 
Rhynchospcra schoenoides? 
Crinum Americanum 
Dichromena colorata 
Pontederia cor data (wampee) 
A crlepia ? lance data 
There is evidently some peculiarity about the water or under¬ 
lying soil of this marsh, for several of the herbs listed are species 
which seem most at home in brackish marshes, and a few also like 
calcareous places, like the southern end of the Everglades. On the 
land side the marsh is bordered in part by a low hammock with 
many calciphile plants; and scattered over the surface of the marsh 
are a good many shells of the water-snail, Ampullaria, which is 
common in the Everglades, and occurs in various other limestone 
regions, even as far north as Wakulla and Jackson Counties. But 
on the water side there is a fringe of slash pine, Pinus Elliottii, 
which has little use for limestone, and all the cypresses on the 
marsh are of the pond instead of the river species, which seems 
strange. The water from a flowing artesian well 60 or 70 feet deep 
near the edge of the marsh seems to contain salt, lime, and sulphur, 
among other things, to judge by its taste. 
The peat is said to be over 20 feet deep in some places, and 
it has a peculiar pungent odor a little different from anything else 
I have seen. At the time of my visit the Crescent Mfg. Co., also 
under Mr. Ranson’s direction, had just erected a plant at the north 
end of the marsh for the manufacture of fertilizer filler. 
EDGE OF RIVER SWAMP NEAR PALATKA. 
About a mile south of Palatka the St. Johns River swamp is 
bordered by a rather steep sandy slope, and the landward edge of 
the swamp at that point has a rather different vegetation from that 
of the estuarine swamps described on page 250, probably because 
the water which seeps out from the sand hill is cooler and purer 
than that in the river. The two kinds of swamp are connected by 
imperceptible gradations, but the following plants belong especially 
to the springy part. 
