Official State Flag of Florida
The original 1868 flag of Florida was simply the Florida state seal centered on a field of white. In the 1890's, Florida's governor suggested adding the red cross so the flag would not look like a banner of truce or surrender when hanging limp on a flagpole. Florida voters agreed and an amendment to Florida's constitution was made in 1900 which describes the current design.
Seal of Florida
The Florida state seal was adopted by the 1865 Legislature, which mandated that the seal be the size of the American silver dollar and display a scene in the center "of the sun's rays over a high land in the distance, a cocoa tree, a steamboat on water, and an Indian female scattering flowers in the foreground, (all) encircled by the words Great Seal of the State of Florida: In God We Trust."
In 1970 Florida's official seal was updated. The cocoa tree became a Sabal palmetto palm (the state tree of Florida), the headdress was removed from the Native American woman (headdresses were only worn by men), and the woman was depicted as a Florida Seminole (originally she was dressed as a Native American of the western Plains).