VEGETATION TYPES. 
ROLAND M. HARPER. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The area covered by this report includes parts of five of the geo¬ 
graphical divisions described by the writer in the 3d and 6th An¬ 
nual Reports. A narrow strip extending the whole length of the 
eastern edge of the map is regarded as belonging to the lake region, 
though some of it is not very typical. The high hammocks near 
Ocala are an extension of the Middle Florida hammock belt. The 
high pine land in the central portion, covering over half the area, 
belongs to the lime-sink or hard-rock phosphate region. The level 
rocky country on both sides of the Withlacoochee River represents 
the Gulf hammock region, and the flat woods west of ptmnellon, 
which are essentially non-calcareous, seem to be the southeastern 
corner of the Middle Florida flatwoods (which the writer formerly 
supposed terminated farther north). Each of these regions is char¬ 
acterized by a different aggregation of vegetation types. 
The native vegetation can be divided into' a dozen or more fairly 
distinct types, as shown on the vegetation map. Some of them are 
confined (in this area at least) to one of the regions'just mentioned, 
while others are common to two or more of them. In such a small 
area as this the diversity of vegetation is due to soil more than any¬ 
thing else, for the climate does not‘vary enough to have any percep¬ 
tible influence.* 
The vegetation map does not correspond exactly with the soil 
map, however, for, the distribution of plants is governed by other 
factors than soil and climate. One of these might be called the his¬ 
torical factor. A certain plant may be common in one part of the 
*Some statistics of climate are given in the chapter on soils. The 
most significant features of the climate here, as compared with other parts of 
the eastern United States, are the mild winters and wet summers. At Ocala 
the average temperature for January, the coldest month, is 57.4 0 F., though frost 
is frequent through the three winter months. Nearly 60% of the annual rain¬ 
fall comes in the four warmest months, June to September, and over 70% in 
the six warmest months, May to October. Such a climate seems to affect the 
soil in such a way as to favor the growth of evergreens more than deciduous 
trees in most parts of the area, as will be pointed out below. 
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