THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 91 



as they may be to them in the North, they will be found worthy 

 of renewed interest in this southern climate. The well known 

 partridge-berry, that blooms for a short time in northern for- 

 ests, is a common plant of Florida groves, but down here it 

 pays no attention to the calendar, and continues to bloom 

 through most of the year. The common black-berried elder, 

 is another plant that does the same thing, having flowers and 

 fruit on the bushes at the same time. Not always on bushes 

 either, for it is often a tree here. Plants ar<i not generally 

 supposed to have intelligence, yet there seems to be no other 

 word that so well describes some of the things they do. Why 

 don't these plants continue to bloom in the North, as long as it 

 remains warm, as they do here? We know that it would be 

 a waste of energy, as the fruit would never mature. But how 

 do the plants know this? 



In my walks through northern forests, I often ran across 

 one or more of the odd little "Indian pipes", always in some 

 shady, secluded spot in the woods. I never expected to find 

 them in any other situation. Gray says "Dark, rich woods" 

 A-et mv first Florida pipe was growing in a situation as far from 

 this one could imagine. It was on a rail-road track, not over 

 a foot from one of the rails, in a bed of hot Florida sand. It 

 is said to be parasitic on roots, or decayed vegetation, but such 

 things must have been very scarce in this spot. In Florida, 

 woods with damp, rich leaf-mold, such as wood ferns love to 

 grow in, are not common. I know of only one such spot in 

 this locality : about half way down the State, and here I found 

 many things that I have found in no other place. 



Whenever I enter this place, I seem to have left the south 

 and am back once more in some cool, shady glen of the north- 

 ern hills. Beds of the familiar partridge-berry carpet the 

 ground, Dense masses of tall, green ferns in all the low, more 

 :shady places, with scores of green Jack-in-the-pulpits for neigh- 

 bors. To offset this large gathering of preachers, and keep 



