6 THE PLANT WORLD 



We had made a very intimate acquaintance with it and its villainous 

 spines, which will run through the stoutest cowhide shoe, while collect- 

 ing tree snails at Goodland Point and other places along the lower coast. 

 Later on the face of the country changed somewhat. There was 

 more land — or mud — and less water, and soon we came to and entered 

 one of the canals common to that region, which are, no doubt, the work 

 of a prehistoric race. They were perfectly straight, only a few feet in 

 width, and still showed the earth on either bank that had been exca- 

 vated when they were dug. They were so overgrown with mangroves 

 that it was a difficult matter to get our boat through. To accomplish 

 this I laid down in the bow and guided it as well as I could between the 

 roots. Eeasoner and Johnson poled it along with short poles, which 

 had been brought for that purpose. We passed from one canal into a 

 natural, crooked waterway, then into another canal, and so on until our 

 guide seemed to be bewildered, and finally acknowledged that he was 

 lost. We turned back, for we could not turn around among the roots, 

 and worked our way to an opening we had passed some time before. 

 This we entered, and traversed a long, crooked passage, finally coming 

 out into a sort of open basin. Johnson thought we had reached our 

 journey's end, but decided, after examining the shore, that we were in 

 the wrong place, so we turned back, and after threading other intricate 

 waterways we entered a second almost circular basin. We landed on 

 the muddy shore, among a tangle of mangroves, and, pushing through 

 a sort of opening cut out among their roots, we came out within a few 

 rods on the edge of a low, half-submerged prairie, and there before our 

 eyes was a sight well worth going a thousand miles to see. 



The prairie was less than a quarter of a mile wide and had been 

 partly burned over before. Scattered thickly over it were the great globu- 

 lar shells of the Idol Snail {Ampidlaria depressa), an inhabitant of the 

 fresh waters of Florida. Beyond the prairie there rose an almost solid 

 wall of rich, evergreen tropical forest, and everywhere among it, tow- 

 ering far above the other trees, were magnificent pluming royal palms, 

 singly, in twos and threes, and in clusters. There was not a breath of 

 air in the thick scrub where we stood, but we could see the leaves of 

 these majestic trees tossing in the strong sea breeze, and now and then 

 the straight trunks swayed over under its influence. Reasoner and I 

 took off our hats and stood silent and awed before the glorious sight. 

 They were no more beautiful or majestic than hundreds of other similar 

 trees I had seen in Central America, but it thrilled me with a feeling of 

 X)atriotic i>ride to see such a forest of this superb palm actually growing 

 indigenous in the soil of the United States. It stretched to the northward 

 as far as we could see, and Johnson informed us that there were be- 

 lieved to be about 500 trees in all. 



