Description:
Excerpt from Flora of Miami: Being Descriptions of the Seed-Plants Growing Naturally on the Everglade Keys and in the Adjacent Everglades Southern Peninsular FloridaThis handbook contains descriptions of the seed-plants growing naturally in the Miami Limestone Region. This area consists of a chain of limestone islands enclosed by the southern portion of the Everglades, except where some of the islands come in contact with the upper half of Bay Biscayne. The chain stretches, in crescent form, from somewhat north of the Miami River southwestward toward Cape Sable for a distance of about fifty-five miles. The islands, apparently, in ancient times formed a part of the Antilles. Their native vegetation is essentially of a tropical character, with strong relationships to the flora of Cuba and of the Bahamas. As far as the native flora is concerned the Everglade Keys represent a small tropical area isolated on the mainland of the United States.The vegetation of the islands themselves is divided into two rather distinct plant-associations, namely, pineland and hammock, which are usually sharply differentiated from each other. These in turn are both rather abruptly marked off from the adjacent Everglades. With few exceptions the individual plant-species are distributed generally over the area under consideration. However, they are, in the majority of eases, confined to the one or the other of the plant-associations; consequently, on the following pages the local distribution of the species is indicated as "Pinelands," "Hammocks," "Everglades."In addition to the area already described, two minor elements are included in our geographical range, the coastal sand-dunes of the narrow peninsula opposite Miami and also those of Virginia Key and Key Biscayne and the waters of Bay Biscayne itself.As the plant-life of the Everglade Keys is closely related to that of the Florida Keys, when a species is common to both, the fact is indicated in this flora by "F.K." (Florida Keys) following the habitat. The relationship of the plant-species of the Miami flora to the flora of the West Indies is also indicated; if a species grows on one or more of the West Indian islands, it is indicated by "Ber." (Bermuda), "Bah." (Bahamas), "Cuba," and if it also occurs in other parts of the West Indies it is indicated by "Ant." (Antilles).About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.