140 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 
THE VEGETATION TYPES IN DETAIL, 
i. (SHALLOW) LAKES, PONDS AND PRAIRIES. 
(figures 57-58-) 
The lakes and ponds in this area (nearly all of which are in the 
southern half), except Lake Panasoffkee and possibly some of those 
on the eastern border, are all very shallow with nearly flat shores, 
and subject to considerable seasonal fluctuation, so that they are* 
bordered by pretty wide areas sometimes inundated and sometimes 
exposed. In northern Florida and southern Georgia and Alabama 
such areas would ordinarily be wooded with cypress, black gum, and 
other water-loving* trees, but in this area they are nearly destitute 
of woody plants, for some reason not yet apparent. Some of the 
smaller ponds dry up completely in spring, and are then known as 
prairies. 
The soil of the lake margins and prairies in the Ocala area is a 
rather sterile sand, with a little peat mixed with it in places, and 
occasional small outcrops of more or less silicified limestone, which 
seems to have little effect on the vegetation. (The water may be a 
little calcareous, however.) Some of these areas are too small to 
show on the soil map at all, and some have been mapped as water 
and some as “Portsmouth sand” and “Portsmouth fine sand.” 
The best development of prairie vegetation in the area is found 
in and around Lake Tsala Apopka, a very irregular and ill-defined 
body of water which varies greatly in area in different seasons and 
in different years. The deeper and more permanent pools in this lake 
and elsewhere contain water-lilies and other strictly aquatic plants, 
and some of the small ponds which become nearly but not quite dry 
(mostly among the hammocks around Ocala) contain a few small 
trees and shrubs. The smallest prairies and pond-margins have 
vegetation similar to that around Lake Tsala Apopka. Although 
the vegetation of lakes is of course quite different from that of prai¬ 
ries, there are all gradations between, and all treeless areas perma¬ 
nently or periodically inundated are here combined. 
The following list is based on observations made in January, 
March, May and July. 
SMALL TREES, SHRUBS AND VINES. 
Cephalanthus occidentals, 9 Myrica cerifera, 6-11 
10 Elbow- bush Hypericum myrtifolium, 4 
Hypericum fasciculatum Berchemia scandens, 9-11 
Salix longipes, 9, 10 Willow Vaecinium nitidum, 2-5, 7 
Myrtle 
(Rattan vine) 
Huckleberry 
