2 FLORIDA WILD FLOWERS 



low pinelands where delicate Atamasco lilies spring from 

 the forest floor ; dry hills where pink thysanella and velvet- 

 leaved blue lupines grow ; hammocks where the great mag- 

 nolia is at home ; swamps where cypress knees take fantastic 

 forms, and where crimson spikes of air plants flame from 

 the tree trunks; streams along whose banks white crinums 

 and wild callas bloom; ocean shores where adventurous 

 flowers open on the sands ; lake borders curtained with 

 grape and smilax, and marshes "paynted all with variable 

 flowers." 



The abundance of the individual plants of a species is 

 a marked characteristic of many Florida wild flowers, and 

 is as striking as their variety. Pink and magenta orchids 

 may be gathered by handf uls ; bladderworts bloom in such 

 profusion that the yellow flowers of one species encircle 

 pineland ponds with broad rings of gold; blue iris covers 

 acres upon acres in spring; prairies are whitened by a 

 heliotrope; and with the abundant and attractive milk- 

 worts grow myriad pipeworts, whose small flowering-heads 

 are appropriately called immortelles. 



From January onward, during an ordinary season, the 

 variety of flowers continually increases. Even dry sands 

 support an interesting flora, and where crumbling lime- 

 stone ridges break through the scanty covering of earth 

 near our southern shores, plants grow and bloom where 

 it seems impossible such life can exist. 



From the Keys and extreme southern Florida, where the 

 mahogany and other trees of the tropics are found, a sub- 

 tropical flora extends northward along the coasts, while such 

 typically northern species as the maple, sumac, Virginia 

 creeper, red mulberry, partridge berry, ash, hickory, willow, 

 and others grow far south in the peninsula, and the star- 

 shaped leaves of the sweet-gum show in Florida the rich 

 autumn coloring that they have in colder states. 



Many a Florida marsh, in its changing profusion of 

 flowers, and its varied and ever fresh interest, might rival 



