[Illustration: Fig. 19.--Map of Ipswich marshes, Massachusetts, formed behind a barrier beach.] Along the coast of New England the ordinary marine marshes attain an extensive development in the form of broad-grassed savannas. With this aspect, though with a considerable change in the plants which they bear, the fringe of savannas continues southward along the coast to northern Florida. In the region about the mouth of the Savannah River, so named from the vast extent of the tidal marshes, these fields attain their greatest development. In central and southern Florida, however, where the seacoast is admirably suited for their development, these coastal marshes of the grassy type disappear, their place being taken by the peculiar morasses formed by the growth of the mangrove tree. In the mangrove marshes the tree which gives the areas their name covers all the field which is visited by the tide. This tree grows with its crown supported on stiltlike roots, at a level above high tide. From its horizontal branches there grow off roots, which reach downward into the water, and thence to the bottom. The seeds of the mangrove are admirably devised so as to enable the plant to obtain a foothold on the mud flats, even where they are covered at low tide with a depth of two or three feet of water. They are several inches in length, and arranged with booklets at their lower ends; floating near the bottom, they thus catch upon it, and in a few weeks' growth push the shoot to the level of the water, thus affording a foundation for a new plantation. In this manner, extending the old forests out into the shallow water of the bays, and forming new colonies wherever the water is not too deep, these plants rapidly occupy all the region which elsewhere would appear in the form of savannas. [Illustration: Fig. 20.--Diagram showing mode of growth of mangroves.]