16 Addisonia 



light shower of rain will quickly damage them, after which they 

 will soon wilt and disappear. 



The vines usually grow prostrate on the rocky jfloor of the pine- 

 woods and the small leaves are of just about the same color as the 

 eroded and weathered rock. Thus the plant is not readily notice- 

 able, except when the corollas are expanded. Sometimes the stems 

 twine over low shrubs and herbs. 



This plant came to our notice on this side of the Gulf Stream when 

 the writer and his associates first entered the "homestead country," 

 thirty odd miles southwest of Miami, in 1903. Previous to this 

 time the plant was definitely known only in Cuba, growing from 

 one end of that island to the other, although it is on record as 

 having been first found in Hispaniola. 



In Florida, the Cuban morning-glory is confined naturally to the 

 pinewoods of the Biscayne pineland of the Everglade Keys. Sev- 

 eral years ago this plant became naturalized on the Florida Keys, 

 when the roadbed of the Key West Extension of the Florida East 

 Coast Railway was built on some of the islands of the Florida 

 Reef with rock taken from the Everglade Keys on the mainland. 

 Whether or not the plant will survive and maintain itself on the 

 Florida Keys under hammock conditions, instead of in the pine- 

 lands, is a question that remains to be answered. 



Under normal soil conditions it is never luxuriant and branches 

 rather sparingly. However, when the roots are imbedded in the 

 artificially broken snow-white lime rock they commonly send out 

 scores of stems which branch freely and thus form large mats sup- 

 porting great quantities of flowers. We found it growing in this 

 luxuriant form on the Florida Keys. 



The specimens from which the accompanying plate was made 

 were collected by the writer on the pinelands west of Cutler, Florida, 

 May 23, 1918. 



John K. Small. 



Explanation op Plate. Fig. l. — Upper part of flowering stem. Fig. 2. — 

 Leaf. Fig. 3.— Fruit. 



