GEOGRAPHY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA 207

 Open flatwoods (fig. 23). In Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi the term "flatwoods" is commonly applied to rather dense hardwood forests on damp clayey soils, but in Florida it always means level forests of long-leaf or slash pine.. Most of our flatwoods have a dense undergrowth of saw-palmetto or other shrubs, but in the western edge of the lake region in Marion County, and in some places in the southwestern flatwoods region, particularly in Pasco County and near the Peace River, the shrubs are scarce or absent, presumably indicating a better or at least a finer-grained soil than usual. And all through the eastern flatwoods there are patches an acre or so in extent which have little or no palmetto, and some herbs, such as the pitcher-plant, are very characteristic of such places. This latter phase is usually a little damper than the rest, and might be regarded as an approach to the shallow prairies already described.
 Palmetto flatzuoods. These are of two or three kinds, depending on which species of pine predominates, but all have much the same aspect: tall pines with very few other trees, and a dense shrubby undergrowth from knee-high to waist-high, consisting mostly of saw-palmetto and other evergreens. There are also many herbs partly hidden by the shrubs. This type covers the greater part of the three flatwoods regions and the Gulf hammock region, and occurs in all the others, with the possible exception of the west coast islands and the hammock belts. The pine is usually long-leaf, but near the coast and near the larger prairies, especially if the soil is a little calcareous, it may be completely replaced by slash pine (Pinus Caribaea). In a few damp spots in the, eastern half of the area black pine (P. serotina) predominates. The characteristic plants of the flatwoods of Marion and Sumter Counties were listed in the Seventh Annual Report, pp. 144-146.
 Fire sweeps through the flatwoods every year or two, but does not injure the pines unless they are very small or have been turpentined, and the palmettos soon send up a new crop of leaves from their thick creeping stems. The pines are an important source of lumber and turpentine, some of the shrubs yield honey, and the herbage af fords pasturage for many cattle. On account of the rather damp soil, and the dif ficulty of grubbing out the. palmetto and other shrubs, the farmers have encroached on the flatwoods very little,