GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 203

usually a good many additional, which make nearly as good pasture. This type is commonest in the eastern division of the flatwoods, e.g. around Lakes Harney and Tohopekaliga, but there are some very interesting examples around Lake Tsala Apopka in Citrus County. There are all gradations between this type and the shore vegetation of smaller likes already mentioned, and of course a considerable variety of flora, depending on the soil and water. For example, in the eastern part of Polk County one of the most conspicuous plants on the prairie-like margins of the smaller lakes is a prickly pear (Opuntia anunophila?), while in very similar, though perhaps a trifle wetter, situations in northern Osceola County a pitcher-plant (Sarraceiia minor) is equally common. Around Lake Harney the vegetation shows a little influence of lime or salt or both.
 Shallow prairies. Small shallow depressions that dry up completely in the dry seasons usually have vegetation resembling the two types last described. (See Seventh Annual Report, page 153 and fig. 57.) Such places are commonest in the lime-sink and Gulf hammock regions, and they often have a few small outcrops of flinty limestone in them. Those, in the Gulf hammock region in Sumter County seem to have more dog-fennel in them than the average. Those in the eastern division of the flatwoods, which approach the next type, are known locally as "sand soaks."
 Flat prairies (fig. 28). Scattered through the central portion of Volusia County, and for several miles on either side of the upper St. John's and lower Kissimmee Rivers are, large areas resembling the neighboring flatwoods in soil and topography, but devoid of trees or nearly so, for no apparent reason, unless such areas are a little more, subject to inundation than the flatwoods, or a little more marly. Saw-palmetto and other shrubs are often less abundant in such places than in typical flatwoods, apparently indicating more fertile soil. Going westward from Melbourne one first passes through continuous pine forests for a few miles, and then small prairies begin to appear, gradually becoming larger, and the pines between them smaller and more scattered, until at- a distance of about seven miles from the Indian River or four miles from the St. John's River the trees are all left behind, and the prairie extends beyond the horizon both north and south. The writer has not yet seen the Kissimmee River prairies, on acount of their remoteness