Question 10-19 1 S; g' H3 J2 X( A3 U
Geographers say that what defines a place are four properties: soil, climate, altitude,
8 d+ i' f C2 I5 c- B( F' Dand aspect, or attitude to the Sun. Florida’s ancient scrub demonstrates this principle. Its
6 n; j( `, J* s- fsoil is pure silica, so barren it supports only lichens as ground cover.( It does, however, . V# b! N9 h$ c7 e$ s8 L
sustain a sand-swimming lizard that cannot live where there is moisture or plant matter) ?- H! | Z0 C$ ]1 i9 L V! O
(5) the soil.) Its climate, despite more than 50 inches of annual rainfall, is blistering desert% |. z, o+ m8 \# l+ J# V" O; u
plant life it can sustain is only the xerophytic, the quintessentially dry. Its altitude is a 5 q2 B9 C' e0 d9 Q
mere couple of hundred feet, but it is high ground on a peninsula elsewhere close to sea
) i; a) R9 H- C* f% |6 p6 ]level, and its drainage is so critical that a difference of inches in elevation can bring major
0 N/ B* c0 _& w; M3 C! q% Ochanges in its plant communities. Its aspect is flat, direct, brutal—and subtropical.( X, w8 e( i! R7 r" y) F# ]
Florida’s surrounding lushness cannot impinge on its desert scrubbiness.) J+ G e2 z$ b# k" x3 \2 a
This does not sound like an attractive place. It does not look much like one either;
/ {) l/ k/ S) w8 {) N, s- T2 lShrubby little oaks, clumps of scraggly bushes, prickly pear, thorns, and tangles. “It appear
: }) L/ m5 C _1 v/ t: }" ]- eSaid one early naturalist,” to desire to display the result of the misery through which it has
! x( M% n( C2 I/ [4 yPassed and is passing.” By our narrow standards, scrub is not beautiful; neither does it meet9 [4 E4 m( p: \( x7 g5 f
our selfish utilitarian needs. Even the name is an epithet, a synonym for the stunted, the
) g" r4 ^3 A$ M3 ^% ]2 E/ \scruffy, the insignificant, what is beautiful about such a place?
' V. v1 `* y8 i; K4 e0 I The most important remaining patches of scrub lie along the Lake Wales Ridge, a chain of paleoislands running for a hundred miles down the center of Florida, in most places less than ten miles wide. It is relict seashore, tossed up millions of years ago when ocean levels
" H+ z$ R5 ~3 J5 X1 W' ~8 W(20) were higher and the rest of the peninsula was submerged. That ancient emergence is
6 t* i0 q2 \7 J2 zprecisely what makes Lake Wales Ridge so precious: it has remained unsubmerged, its
2 o' ~4 b8 _2 p- W/ [; o+ D5 Qecosystems essentially undisturbed, since the Miocene era. As a result, it has gathered to
$ L# O# z+ s3 A( D- v/ Litself one of the largest collections of rare organisms in the world. Only about 75 plant5 Q- s1 W/ \8 g. e3 k
species survive there, but at least 30 of these are found nowhere else on Earth. |
发表于 2012-8-14 22:34:35
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