342 
FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY—THIRD ANNUAL REPORT. 
Juncus effusus L. 
In comparatively rich low. grounds, usually as a sort of weed in damp pas¬ 
tures, ditches, etc. Grows on very impure peat in Leon and Franklin Counties. 
Widely distributed in all temperate regions, in one form or another. Our 
plant has recently been described by Fernald & Wiegand (Rhodora 12: 90-92. 
1910) as var. solutus, and said to range from New Brunswick to Texas, mostly 
in the coastal plain. 
BROMELIAOEAE. Pineapple Family. 
Tillandsia usneoides L. (Long or Spanish) Moss. (Figs. 24, 26.) 
Abundant in nearly every county in Florida, epiphytic on all kinds of trees 
that have branches (this excludes the palms), usually near water or limestone, 
or both. It hardly ever comes nearer to the ground than five or six feet. As it 
grows in nearly all our swamps, it must contribute largely to the formation of 
peat, but of course it is not found in the best peat deposits, because those are 
treeless. 
Virginia to Texas, almost confined to the coastal plain. Also in the West 
Indies. 
Tillandsia sps. Air-plants. (Fig. 21.) 
The farther south one goes in Florida, the larger and more numerous the 
species of Tillandsia become. Only one besides T. usneoides crosses the northern 
boundary of the State, or extends as far west as Wakulla County, but in the 
southernmost counties there are about a dozen. Their favorite habitat is ham¬ 
mocks, but several of them, such as T. tenuifolia, re cur vat a. fasciculata, Balbis- 
iana and utriculata, grow also in swamps, and therefore help to form peat. 
PONTEDiERIACEAE. Pickerel-weed Family. 
Piaropus crassipes (Mart.) Britton. Water Hyacinth. 
In permanent or nearly permanent (usually coffee-colored) quiet fresh 
water, in lakes, estuaries, prairie holes, etc., sometimes floating and sometimes 
(where the water is very shallow) lightly attached to the bottom. Escaped from 
cultivation near Palatka about twenty years ago, and now pretty widely distrib¬ 
uted over Florida, especially in the central portion. Abundant along the St. 
Johns and Withlacoochee Rivers and in the edges of some of the larger lakes. 
In the last decade of the 19th century it threatened to choke up some of the 
navigable streams, but now one hears very few complaints about it* It is cer¬ 
tainly a handsome plant, and it seems to form peat pretty rapidly, too, as ex¬ 
plained on page 292. 
Native of South America; naturalized in Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and per¬ 
haps a few other southern states. 
Pontederia cordata L. Wampee. Blue Water-lily. (Plate 25.2.) 
Crows in places where the water-level fluctuates from about the surface of 
the ground to a few inches above. Therefore avoids alluvial swamps, where the 
water gets too high and too low, non-alluvial swamps, where it does not fluctuate 
