1^8 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY-SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 
Not over 10% of the woody plants are evergreen, which is a re¬ 
markably low figure for central Florida. The proportion of ever¬ 
greens is evidently considerably larger among the herbs, although 
there are doubtless a good many species which die down in winter 
and are not recognizable in the spring, and if these swamps could 
be studied in the fall the apparent proportion of evergreen herbs 
would be reduced. But the difference in the figures for trees and 
herbs is probably due to the fact that the trees send their roots down 
into the rich marl substratum, while some of the herbs are air-plants, 
several are floating aquatics, not attached to the soil, and most of 
the rest draw their sustenance chiefly from the peat, which is noto¬ 
riously deficient in potash, the World over. Ericaceae and Legumi- 
nosae seem to be entirely absent, probably for the same reasons that 
they are scarce in the high and low hammocks. 
n. SHORT-LEAF PINE AND CABBAGE PALMETTO BOTTOMS. 
(figure 70.) 
In the extreme eastern part of the Ocala area, within a few miles 
of Silver Springs, is a peculiar type of vegetation in which short- 
leaf pine and cabbage palmetto are the dominant trees. It corre¬ 
sponds approximately with the “Dead River swamp” of the old 
topographic base map, and the “Fellowship clay” and part of the 
“Fellowship sandy loam” and “Swamp” of the soil map; and might 
be regarded as an old flood-plain of the Oeklawaha River, at the 
western edge of the lake region. 
The soil varies considerably in texture and moisture, but is 
mostly flat and damp, rather clayey, but not noticeably rocky or 
calcareous. No mechanical or chemical analyses of it are available. 
(There is a mechanical analysis of “Fellowship sandy loam” in the 
chapter on soils, but that is a composite of three samples, two of 
which seem to represent open flatwoods and high pine land.) The 
wetter parts look much like some of the low hammocks and 
swamps already described, and the drier parts pass gradually into, 
open pine woods a few miles northeast of Silver Springs. Soil 
animals have not been noticed, but are probably not entirely want¬ 
ing. Fire must be very rare, as in other damp shady forests. 
The following plants were observed northeast of Silver Springs 
in March and southeast of there in July. 
