INTEODUCTION 5 



of cabbage palms, and winds its brightly colored rootstocks 

 among the bases of the leaf-stalks. A sword-fern, closely 

 allied to the Boston fern, has leaves that are sometimes 

 more than twenty-five feet in length, and the broad leaves 

 of the leather fern, growing in wet soil toward the coast, 

 are often ten feet tall. Eesembling both the ferns and 

 the palms in its leaves is the singular zamia, or coontie, 

 that is reminiscent of the peculiar flora of prehistoric 

 ages. 



Spring comes to the peninsula before autumn ends. 

 Early spring flowers and belated summer flowers are found 

 together in December, and the cinnamon fern that in 

 northern states sends up its fruiting leaves in spring un- 

 rolls them here in autumn. Orchids may be gathered in 

 Florida while snow lies deep on northern fields, the yellow 

 jessamine gives its fragrance to midwinter air, and in 

 the warmer parts of the peninsula the magnificent moon- 

 flower opens, ghostly white, on winter nights. 



