Part 15

See F. Mendez, _Noticia de la vida y escritos de Henrique Florez_ (Madrid, 1780).

FLORIAN, SAINT, a martyr honoured in Upper Austria. In the 8th century Puoche was mentioned as the place of his tomb, and on the site was built the celebrated monastery of canons regular, St Florian, which still exists. His _Acta_ are of considerable antiquity, but devoid of historical value. Their substance is borrowed from the _Acta_ of St Irenaeus of Sirmium. The cult of St Florian was introduced into Poland, together with the relics of the saint, which were brought thither in 1183 by Giles, bishop of Modena. Casimir, duke of Poland, dedicated a church at Cracow to him. He is represented in various ways, especially as a warrior holding in his hand a vessel from which he pours out flames. His protection is often sought against fire. His day in the calendar is the 4th of May.

See _Acta Sanctorum_, May, i. 461-467; B. Krusch, _Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum_, iii. 65-68; C. Cahier, _Caracteristiques des saints_, p. 490 (Paris, 1867). (H. De.)

FLORIAN, JEAN PIERRE CLARIS DE (1755-1794), French poet and romance writer, was born on the 6th of March 1755 at the chateau of Florian, near Sauve, in the department of Gard. His mother, a Spanish lady named Gilette de Salgues, died when he was quite a child. His uncle and guardian, the marquis of Florian, who had married a niece of Voltaire, introduced him at Ferney and in 1768 he became page at Anet in the household of the duke of Penthievre, who remained his friend throughout his life. Having studied for some time at the artillery school at Bapaume he obtained from his patron a captain's commission in a dragoon regiment, and in this capacity it is said he displayed a boisterous behaviour quite incongruous with the gentle, meditative character of his works. On the outbreak of the French Revolution he retired to Sceaux, but he was soon discovered and imprisoned; and though his imprisonment was short he survived his release only a few months, dying on the 13th of September 1794.

Florian's first literary efforts were comedies; his verse epistle _Voltaire et le serf du Mont Jura_ and an eclogue _Ruth_ were crowned by the French Academy in 1782 and 1784 respectively. In 1782 also he produced a one-act prose comedy, _Le Bon Menage_, and in the next year _Galatee_, a romantic tale in imitation of the _Galatea_ of Cervantes. Other short tales and comedies followed, and in 1786 appeared _Numa Pompilius_, an undisguised imitation of Fenelon's _Telemaque_. In 1788 he became a member of the French Academy, and published _Estelle_, a pastoral of the same class as _Galatee_. Another romance, _Gonzalve de Cordoue_, preceded by an historical notice of the Moors, appeared in 1791, and his famous collection of _Fables_ in 1792. Among his posthumous works are _La Jeunesse de Florian, ou Memoires d'un jeune Espagnol_ (1807), and an abridgment (1799) of _Don Quixote_, which, though far from being a correct representation of the original, had great and merited success.

Florian imitated Salomon Gessner, the Swiss idyllist, and his style has all the artificial delicacy and sentimentality of the Gessnerian school. Perhaps the nearest example of the class in English literature is afforded by John Wilson's (Christopher North's) _Lights and Shadows of Scottish Life_. Among the best of his fables are reckoned "The Monkey showing the Magic Lantern," "The Blind Man and the Paralytic," and "The Monkeys and the Leopard."

The best edition of Florian's _Oeuvres completes_ appeared in Paris in 16 volumes, 1820; his _Oeuvres inedites_ in 4 volumes, 1824.

See "Vie de Florian," by L.F. Jauffret, prefixed to his _Oeuvres posthumes_ (1802); A.J.N. de Rosny, _Vie de Florian_ (Paris, An V.); Sainte-Beuve, _Causeries du lundi_, t. iii.; A. de Montvaillant, _Florian, sa vie, ses oeuvres_ (1879); and _Lettres de Florian a Mme de la Briche_, published, with a notice by the baron de Barante in _Melanges_ published (1903) by the Societe des bibliophiles francais.

FLORIANOPOLIS (formerly _Desterro_, _Nossa Senhora do Desterro_ and _Santa Catharina_, and still popularly known under the last designation), a city and port of Brazil and the capital of the state of Santa Catharina, on the western or inside shore of a large island of the same name, 485 m. S.S.W. of Rio de Janeiro, in 27 deg. 30' S., 48 deg. 30' W. Pop. (1890) 11,400, including many Germans; (1902, estimate) 16,000; of the municipality, including a large rural district and several villages (1890), 30,687. The harbour is formed by the widening of the strait separating the island from the mainland, which is nearly 2 m. wide at this point. It is approached by narrow entrances from the N. and S., which are defended by small forts. The island is mountainous and wooded, and completely shelters the harbour from easterly storms. The surroundings are highly picturesque and tropical in character, but the town itself is poorly built and unattractive. Its public buildings include the president's official residence, arsenal, lyceum, hospital and some old churches. The climate is warm for the latitude, but the higher elevations of the vicinity are noted for their mild climate and healthfulness. There are some German colonies farther up the coast whose products find a market here, and a number of small settlements along the mainland coast add something to the trade of the town. The more distant inland towns are partly supplied from this point, but difficult mountain roads tend to restrict the trade greatly. There is a considerable trade in market produce with Rio de Janeiro, but the exports are inconsiderable. Santa Catharina was formerly one of the well-known whaling stations of the South Atlantic, and is now a secondary military and naval station.

The island of Santa Catharina was originally settled by the Spanish; Cabeza de Vaca landed here in 1542 and marched hence across country to Asuncion, Paraguay. The Spanish failed to establish a permanent colony, however, and the Portuguese took possession. The island was captured by a Spanish expedition under Viceroy Zeballos in 1777. A boundary treaty of that same year restored it to Portugal. In 1894 Santa Catharina fell into the possession of revolutionists against the government of President Floriano Peixoto. With the collapse of the revolution the city was occupied by the government forces, and its name was then changed to Florianopolis in honour of the president of the republic.

FLORIDA, the most southern of the United States of America, situated between 24 deg. 30' and 31 deg. N. lat. and 79 deg. 48' and 87 deg. 38' W. long. It is bounded N. by Georgia and Alabama, E. by the Atlantic Ocean, S. by the Strait of Florida, which separates it from Cuba, and by the Gulf of Mexico, and W. by Alabama and the Gulf. The Florida Keys, a chain of islands extending in a general south-westerly direction from Biscayne Bay, are included in the state boundaries, and the city of Key West, on an island of the same name, is the seat of justice of Monroe county. The total area of the state is 58,666 sq. m., of which 3805 sq. m. are water surface. The coast line is greater than that of any other state, extending 472 m. on the Atlantic and 674 m. on the Gulf Coast.

The peculiar outline of Florida gives it the name of "Peninsula State." The average elevation of the surface of the state above the sea-level is less than that of any other state except Louisiana, but there is not the monotony of unbroken level which descriptions and maps often suggest. The N.W. portion of the state is, topographically, similar to south-eastern Alabama, being a rolling, hilly country; the eastern section is a part of the Atlantic coastal plain; the western coast line is less regular than the eastern, being indented by a number of bays and harbours, the largest of which are Charlotte Harbour, Tampa Bay and Pensacola Bay. Along much of the western coast and along nearly the whole of the eastern coast extends a line of sand reefs and narrow islands, enclosing shallow and narrow bodies of water, such as Indian river and Lake Worth--called rivers, lakes, lagoons, bays and harbours. In the central part of the state there is a ridge, extending N. and S. and forming a divide, separating the streams of the east coast from those of the west. Its highest elevation above sea-level is about 300 ft. The central region is remarkable for its large number of lakes, approximately 30,000 between Gainesville in Alachua county, and Lake Okeechobee. They are due largely to sinkholes or depressions caused by solution of the limestone of the region. Many of the lakes are connected by subterranean channels, and a change in the surface of one lake is often accompanied by a change in the surface of another. By far the largest of these lakes, nearly all of them shallow, is Lake Okeechobee, a body of water about 1250 sq. m. in area and almost uniformly shallow, its depth seldom being greater than 15 ft. Caloosahatchee river, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico near Charlotte Harbour, is its principal outlet. Among the other lakes are Orange, Crescent, George, Weir, Harris, Eustis, Apopka, Tohopekaliga, Kissimmee and Istokpoga. The chief feature of the southern portion of the state is the Everglades (q.v.), the term "Everglade State" being popularly applied to Florida. Within the state there are many swamps, the largest of which are the Big Cypress Swamp in the S. adjoining the Everglades on the W., and Okefinokee Swamp, extending from Georgia into the N.E. part of the state.

A peculiar feature of the drainage of the state is the large number of subterranean streams and of springs, always found to a greater or less extent in limestone regions. Some of them are of great size. Silver Spring and Blue Spring in Marion county, Blue Spring and Orange City Mineral Spring in Volusia county, Chipola Spring near Marianna in Jackson county, Espiritu Santo Spring near Tampa in Hillsboro county, Magnolia Springs in Clay county, Suwanee Springs in Suwanee county, White Sulphur Springs in Hamilton county, the Wekiva Springs in Orange county, and Wakulla Spring, Newport Sulphur Spring and Panacea Mineral Spring in Wakulla county are the most noteworthy. Many of the springs have curative properties, one of them, the Green Cove Spring in Clay county, discharging about 3000 gallons of sulphuretted water per minute. Not far from St Augustine a spring bursts through the sea itself with such force that the ocean breakers roll back from it as from a sunken reef. The springs often merge into lakes, and lake systems are usually the sources of the rivers, Lake George being the principal source of the St Johns, and Lake Kissimmee of the Kissimmee, while a number of smaller lakes are the source of the Oklawaha, one of the most beautiful of the Floridian rivers.

Of the rivers the most important are the St Johns, which flows N. from about the middle of the peninsula, empties into the Atlantic a short distance below Jacksonville, and is navigable for about 250 m. from its mouth, the Withlacoochee, flowing in a general north-westerly direction from its source in the N.E. part of Polk county, and forming near its entrance into the Gulf of Mexico the boundary between Levy and Citrus counties, and four rivers, the Escambia, the Choctawatchee, the Apalachicola, and the Suwanee, having their sources in other states and traversing the north-western part of Florida. On account of its sand reefs, the east coast has not so many harbours as the west coast. The most important harbours are at Fernandina, St Augustine, and Miami on the E. coast, and at Tampa, Key West and Pensacola on the W. coast.

The soils of Florida have sand as a common ingredient.[1] They may be divided into three classes: the pine lands, which often have a surface of dark vegetable mould, under which is a sandy loam resting on a substratum of clay, marl or limestone--areas of such soil are found throughout the state; the "hammocks," which have soil of similar ingredients and are interspersed with the pine lands--large areas of this soil occur in Levy, Alachua, Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Gadsden, Leon, Madison, Jefferson and Jackson counties; and the alluvial swamp lands, chiefly in E. and S. Florida, the richest class, which require drainage to fit them for cultivation.

As regards climate Florida may be divided into three more or less distinct zones. North and west of a line passing through Cedar Keys and Fernandina the climate is distinctly "southern," similar to that of the Gulf states; from this line to another extending from the mouth of the Caloosahatchee to Indian river inlet the climate is semi-tropical, and is well suited to the cultivation of oranges; S. of this the climate is sub-tropical, well adapted to the cultivation of pineapples. Since the semi-tropical and sub-tropical zones are nearer the course of the Gulf Stream, and are swept by the trade winds, their temperatures are more uniform than those of the zones of southern climate; indeed, the extremes of heat (103 deg. F.) and cold (13 deg. F.) are felt in the region of southern climate. The mean annual temperature of the state is 70.8 deg. F., greater in the sub-tropical than in the other climate zones, and the Atlantic coast is in general warmer than the Gulf Coast. The rainfall averages 52.09 in. per annum. On account of its warm climate, Florida has many resorts for health and pleasure, which are especially popular in the season from January to April; the more important are St Augustine, Ormond, Daytona, Palm Beach, Miami, Tampa, White Springs, Hampton Springs, Worthington Springs and Orange Springs.

No metals have ever been discovered in Florida. The principal minerals are rock phosphate and (recently more important) land and river pebble phosphate, found in scattered deposits in a belt on the "west coast" about 30 m. wide and extending from Tallahassee to Lake Okeechobee. The centre of the quarries is Dunnellon in Marion county, and pebble phosphate is found in Hillsboro, Polk, De Soto, Osceola, Citrus and Hernando counties. Although the economic value of the phosphate deposits was first realized about 1889, between 1894 and 1907 Florida produced, each year, more than half of all the phosphate rock produced in the whole United States, the yield of Florida (1,357,365 long tons) in 1907 being valued at $6,577,757; that of the whole country at $10,653,558. Florida is also the principal source in the United States for fuller's earth, a deposit of which, near Quincy, was first discovered in 1893; and clay (including kaolin) is also mined to some extent. Other minerals that have been discovered but have not been industrially developed are gypsum, lignite and cement rock. The lack of a thorough geological survey has perhaps prevented the discovery of other minerals--certainly it is responsible for a late recognition of the economic value of the known mineral resources.

The flora of N. Florida is similar to that of south-eastern North America; that of S. Florida seems to be a link between the vegetation of North America and that of South America and the West Indies, for out of 247 species of S. Florida that have been examined, 187 are common to the West Indies, Mexico and South America. The forests cover approximately 37,700 sq. m., chiefly in the northern part of the state, including about half of the peninsula, yellow pine being predominant, except in the coastal marsh lands, where cypress, found throughout the state, particularly abounds. About half of the varieties of forest trees in the United States are found, and among the peculiar species are the red bay or "Florida Mahogany," satinwood and cachibou, and the Florida yew and savin, both almost extinct. The lumber industry is important: in 1905 the total factory product of lumber and timber was valued at $10,901,650, and lumber and planing mill products were valued at $1,690,455. In 1900 this was the most valuable industry in the state; in 1905 it was second to the manufacture of tobacco. The fauna is similar in general to that of the southern United States. Among the animals are the puma, manatee (sea cow), alligator and crocodile, but the number of these has been greatly diminished by hunting. Ducks, wild turkeys, bears and wild cats (lynx) are found, but in decreasing numbers.

The fisheries are very valuable; the total number of species of fish in Florida waters is about 600, and many species found on one coast are not found on the other. The king fish and tarpon are hunted for sport, while mullet, shad, redsnappers, pompano, trout, sheepshead and Spanish mackerel are of great economic value. The sponge and oyster fisheries are also important. The total product of the fisheries in 1902 was valued at about $2,000,000.

_Industry and Commerce._--The principal occupation is agriculture, in which 44% of the labouring population was engaged in 1900, but only 12.6% of the total land surface was enclosed in farms, of which only 34.6% was improved, and the total agricultural product for 1899 was valued at $18,309,104. As the number of farms increased faster than the cultivated area from 1850 to 1900, the average size of farms declined from 444 acres in 1860 to 140 in 1880 and to 106.9 in 1900, the largest class of farms being those with an acreage varying from 20 to 50 acres. Nearly three-fourths of the farms, in 1900, were cultivated by their owners, but the cash tenantry system showed an increase of 100% since 1890, being most extensively used in the cotton counties. One-third of the farms were operated by negroes, but one-half of these farms were rented, and the value of negro farm property was only one-eighth that of the entire farm property of the state. According to the state census of 1905 only 1,621,362 acres were improved; of 45,984 farms, 31,233 were worked by whites.

Fruits normally form the principal crop; the total value for 1907-8 of the fruit crops of the state (including oranges, lemons, limes, grape-fruit, bananas, guavas, pears, peaches, grapes, figs, pecans, &c.) was $6,160,299, according to the report of the State Department of Agriculture. The discovery of Florida's adaptability to the culture of oranges about 1875 may be taken as the beginning of the state's modern industrial development. But the unusual severity of the winters of 1887, 1894 and 1899 (the report of the Twelfth Census which gives the figures for this year being therefore misleading) destroyed three-fourths of the orange trees, and caused an increased attention to stock-raising, and to various agricultural products. Orange culture has recovered much of its importance, but it is carried on in the more southern counties of the state. The cultivation of pineapples, in sub-tropical Florida, is proving successful, the product far surpassing that of California, the only other state in the Union in which pineapples are grown. Grape-fruit, guavas and lemons are also successfully produced in this part of the state. The cultivation of strawberries and vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, beets, beans, tomatoes, egg-plant, cucumbers, water-melons, celery, &c.) for northern markets, and of orchard fruits, especially plums, pears and prunes, has likewise proved successful. In 1907-8, according to the State Department of Agriculture, the total value of vegetable and garden products was $3,928,657. In 1903, according to the statistics of the United States Department of Agriculture, Indian corn ranked next to fruits (as given in the state reports), but its product as compared with that of various other states is unimportant--in 1907 it amounted to 7,017,000 bushels only; rice is the only other cereal whose yield in 1899 was greater than that of 1889, but the Florida product was surpassed (in 1899) by that of the Carolinas, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas; in 1907 the product of rice in Florida (69,000 bushels) was less than that of Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina, Arkansas and Georgia severally. Tobacco culture, which declined after 1860 on account of the competition of Cuba and Sumatra, has revived since 1885 through the introduction of Cuban and Sumatran seed; the product of 1907 (6,937,500 lb.) was more than six times that of 1899, the product in 1899 (1,125,600 lb.) being more than twice that of 1889 (470,443 lb.), which in turn was more than twenty times that for 1880 (21,182 lb.)--the smallest production recorded for many decades. In 1907 the average farm price of tobacco was 45 cents per lb. higher than that of any other state. In 1899, 84% of the product was raised in Gadsden county. The sweet potato and pea-nut crops have also become very valuable; on the other hand the Census of 1900 showed a decline in acreage and production of cotton. In 1907 the acreage (265,000 acres) was less than in any cotton-growing state except Missouri and Virginia; the crop for 1907-1908 was 49,794 bales. Sea-island cotton of very high grade is grown in Alachua county. The production of sugar, begun by the early Spanish settlers, declined, but that of syrup increased. Pecan nuts are a promising crop, and many groves were planted after 1905. In 1900 there were more than 1,900,000 acres of land in the state unoccupied. The low lands of the South are being drained partly by the state and partly by private companies. Irrigation, introduced in 1888 by the orange growers, has been adopted by other farmers, especially the tobacco-growers of Gadsden county, and so the evil effects of the droughts, so common from February to June, are avoided. The value of farm property in the southern counties, which have been developed very recently, shows a steady increase, that of Hillsboro county surpassing the other counties of the state. In 1907-8, according to the state Department of Agriculture, the total value of all field crops (cotton, cereals, sugar-cane, hay and forage, sweet potatoes, &c.) was $11,856,340, and the total value of all farm products (including live stock, $20,817,804, poultry and products, $1,688,433, and dairy products, $1,728,642) was $46,371,320.