114 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY-I3TH ANNUAL REPORT

of Brooksville, it is usually rather loamy and retentive of moisture, but in Citrus and Pasco Counties it is drier and sandier, though often brownish in color. The central portion of this belt is covered by the soil survey of Hernando County, published in 1915. In that by far the greater part of the soils are referred to the "Hernando" series (a name apparently not used elsewhere, so that it means little to the reader). Other series in order of area are the "Gainesville," "Norfolk," "Fellowship," "Portsmouth," "St. Lucie," and "Leon." The prevailing texture classes are fine sandy loam (about 6o%), fine sand, loamy fine sand, and stony clay loam. The scrub, here called "St. Lucie fine sand," makes up about 3% of the total. Two chemical analyses are given in the general chapter on soils.
 Vegetation. Hardwood forests, or mixed hardwood and pine cover hundreds of acres in'the neighborhood of Brooksville (fig. 17), but toward the extremities of the region hammocks are chiefly confined to depressions, and the uplands are mostly high pine land. The vegetation is decidedly less tropical than that of some places farther east in the same latitude, and nearly all the plants range at least as far north as Georgia. The short-leaf or loblolly pine (Pinis Tacda), which is probably the most characteristic tree of


















 Fig. 17. Part of Choocochattee Hammock in process of clearing, about 3 miles southeast of Brooksville. Trees mostly live oak and sweet gum. March 9, 1915.