PRELIMINARY REPORT ON PEAT.

TREES
Taxodium distichum (cypress) Sabal Palmetto (cabbage palmetto) Nyssa biflora (black gum) Magnolia glauca (bay) Acer rubrum (maple)

Salix loncgipes? (willow) Nyssa Ogeche (tupelo gum) Fraxinus profunda? (ash) Ulmus Floridana (elm) Juniperus Virginiana (cedar)

SHRUBS AND VINES

Hypericunm fasciculatum? Alnus rugosa (alder) Amorpha fruticosa Sabal glabra (palmetto) Cephalanthus occidentalis (buttonbush)
HERBS
Cladium effusum (saw-grass) Sagittaria lancifolia Nymphaqa fluviatilis (bonnets) (in
bayous)
Tillandsia usnecides (Spanish
moss) (on trees)
Osmunda regalis (a fern) Scirpus validus (bulrush) Saururus cernuus Zizania aquatica? (wild rice)

Myrica cerifera (myrtle) Parthenccissus quinquefolia (Virginia creeper)
Rhus radicans (poison ivy)

Typha latifolia (cat-tail) Phragmites communis (reed grass) Pontederia cordata (wampee) Peltandra Virginica Scirpus Olneyi? Iris versicolor (blue flag) Carex impressa Carex stipata funcus effusus (rush)

This vegetation is by no means homogeneous. It is divided pretty sharply into alternate strips or patches of swamp and marsh. and the plants of the two kinds of places (shady and sunny) could have been separated pretty well in the list if the matter had been of sufficient importance to justify it. The marshes contain a few small scattered cypress and willow trees, Hypericum and Cephalanthus bushes, and most of the herbs listed above, while the swamps contain all the species of trees, most of the shrubs, and" a few of the herbs, such as Tillandsia, Osmunda, Saururus and Carex.
The alluvium of course contains a considerable quantity of organic matter, from the decay of the plants which have grown there in centuries past, but it can hardly be called peat, on account of the large amount of mud present. It is quite likely that this mass of sediment has a decided stratified structure, with some layers more peaty than others. No samples of it have been taken, but judging from the analogy of other estuarine peat to be mentioned below, this must contain as much as 90% of mineral matter, on the average.

237