Some are found in more or less open plains, while others inhabit swampy districts.
It is extensively distributed in the tropical parts of South and Central America, frequenting low swampy savannas, along the banks of rivers, and the depths of the humid forests, but is nowhere abundant.
It was probably at one time an island; this was Strabo's opinion, and at the present day the ground which joins it to the mainland is low and swampy, and seems to have been formed by alluvial soil brought down by the Cephisus.
These plants, which appear to have grown in swampy soil, thus attained the dimensions of considerable trees.
The common souslik lives in dry, treeless plains, especially on sandy or clayey soil, and is never found either in forests or on swampy ground.