THE PLANT WORLD 91 



AMONG FLORIDA FERNS. 



By a. H. Curtiss. 

 [concluded] 



I at once removed the packages, wliicli I knew were full of mold, 

 and packed tliem in boxes, which, with my boat, I had moved across to 

 Salt Lake, where a small steamer was expected to arrive the next night. 

 That night I spent on my boat in a cypress swamp, and enjoyed a 

 sense of security which I had never felt on the lagoons, where, as a 

 rule, there is nothing to break the ocean winds. The next morning my 

 l)recious freight was placed on board the steamer, and then, hoisting 

 sail, with my negro boatman I started for Jacksonville, distant about 

 200 miles " as the river meanders." In the fall the country bordering 

 the upper St. Johns is in a state of inundation. Its course is then best 

 indicated by the line of most rapid current. The scenery consists of 

 watery palmetto forests, overflowed prairies and lakes without visible 

 banks. 



After sailing for about two hours, I spied a few specimens of a 

 strange floating plant, but with a brisk wind and rapid current we were 

 traveling too fast for herborizing. Going forward Avith a long oar and 

 throwing one arm around the mast, I waited for another specimen and 

 before long had one on deck. There was nothing about it in the least 

 suggestive of Thcdlctrwn, yet I felt convinced that it was Cerafopteris 

 fhaliciroides. Resuming my lookout, I soon discovered a large number 

 of the plants back of some tall grass bordering the channel. To reach 

 them we threw the anchor out among the grass and pulled in on the 

 rope until w^e were among the plants, when I made a large collection, 

 about 125 specimens. To i)ress all these large, watery plants was the 

 most formidable task in this line I had ever undertaken, and it might 

 have proved impracticable had not my presses been emptj'. I first 

 placed the plants in some empty boxes and let them drain as much as 

 they would until the next morning. Later in the day I secured a set of 

 a handsome floating grass, Paspcdum fidtans, and one of the great 8es- 

 hania macrocarpa. 



"When night arrived we had seen no land and could do no better 

 than tie up to a palmetto. We had been sailing among palmettos al- 

 most continually, and it was unjjleasantly evident that if our worm- 

 eaten boat should strike a snag or stump we might be glad to find 

 refuge in the top of a palmetto and try to hail the steamer that would 

 be coming along a night or tAvo later. During the second day our sur- 

 roundings changed somewhat for the better. We crossed several lakes 

 and came to where the river had visible banks. We saw one house 

 which some misguided person had built during a dry season, with water 



