A BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO THE BIG CYPRESS 



495 



toward them, set up a camera, and photo- 

 graph them at short range. 



There was water in the lower parts of the 

 slough, but none was visible, for the sur- 

 face was completely covered with a soft 

 carpet of various small aquatics. These 

 were distributed in patches of beautiful 

 shades of green. In the higher parts of the 

 slough ferns and flowering plants grew in 

 about equal profusion and remarkable 

 luxuriance. The growth reminded me of 

 that in the hammocks of the eastern shore 

 of Lake Okeechobee. 1 The large, straplike 

 leaves of the spider lily and the paddle- 

 like leaves of the golden club or bog torches 

 (Orontium) were very conspicuous. The 

 leaves of the golden club here at its most 

 southern known station were fully three feet 

 long, while the fruiting spadices lying 

 around on the ground were thrice the size 

 of any that I have ever observed at the 

 north. The lizard's-tail (Sanrurus) was also 

 there in great abundance. 



Thus these typically northern plants, the 

 lizard's-tail and golden club, are there inti- 

 mately associated with such typically south- 

 ern plants as the water hyacinth and the 

 water lettuce. Other southern elements rep- 

 resented are the Boston fern (Nephrolepis 

 exaltata) and the wild coffee (Psychotria 

 undata \. 



After making a collection of all the 

 plants observed and photographing the more 

 interesting views, we returned to our cars, 

 crossed the slough, and set out over the 

 prairie in the direction of Eocky Lake, 

 which lies in an uncharted spot in the 

 Big Cypress between the Okaloacoodiee 

 Slough and the Everglades. As we pro- 

 ceeded, palmetto hammocks, hardwood ham- 

 mocks, and cypress heads became more nu- 

 merous on the prairie. At last we came to 

 the hammock surrounding Rocky Lake, 

 which is known to the Seminoles as Okee- 

 hy-yot-lochee, a word said to mean "wide- 

 open-water," where we camped for lunch, 

 and made collections of the plants. This 

 lake is contained in a rock basin several 

 acres in extent. It is said that it is fully 

 seventy-five feet deep, and abounds in fish 

 and alligators. Of course, it would be some- 

 what of an exaggeration to say that one 

 could walk across the lake on the alligators' 



1 See Journal of the New York Botanical Gar- 

 den, Vol. XV. pp. 69-79; Vol. XIX, pp. 279- 

 290. The American Museum Journal, Vol. 

 XVIII, pp. 684-700. 



backs; but they were more numerous than 

 1 have ever seen them elsewhere. 



After lunch we set out for the ruins of an 

 Indian mission- which some years before 

 had been established near the site of the 

 one-time Fort Shackleford, and then aban- 

 doned. After leaving Rocky Lake the trail 

 wound in anil out between hammocks and 

 cypress heads until finally more open prairie 

 was reached. 



When we arrived at the Seminole mis- 

 sion we were now not more than four miles 

 from the western edge of the Everglades. 

 A unique specimen of the cabbage tree was 

 observed — a five-fingered object, with^fre 

 branches of about equal length arising from 

 the trunk, just above the surface of The 

 ground and all in one plane. Probably no- 

 where is this duplicated. Many interesting 

 plants were found in the vicinity, especially 

 several loosestrifes (Lythrum), and a false 

 indigo (A mot pha ) which is apparently 

 different from any known species. 



2 The old Seminole mission thirty-five miles 

 beyond Imniokalee was established about 1910—11 

 through the instrumentality of William Crane 

 Gray, then Bishop of southern Florida, for the 

 Protestant Kin-.,, pal Church, the work being 

 undertaken by I>r. William J. Godden, of Green- 

 wich, England, who happened then to be touring 

 the United states. Dr. Godden, a man of high 

 connections and attainments, soon won the love of 

 both red and white men. Originally, he started a 

 small hospital and social center for the Seminoles 

 at a point about seventy miles back from Fort 

 Myers, near the historic site of old Fort Shackle- 

 ford. He called this lirst settlement Glade Cross — 

 because of it-- proximity to the Everglades and the 

 argi white cross he mounted against a cabbage 

 palm. But when a couple of red patients died 

 in the hospital l'O more Seminoles could be in- 

 duced to come near the place. The mission was 

 thereupon transferred to the lonely outpost called 

 Boat Landing on the edge of the Everglades, at 

 that time the head of all the canoe trails of the 

 region. It was not long, though, before the par- 

 tial drainage of the Everglades dried the canoe 

 trails, and Boat Landing ceased to be a port 

 of call, or any port at all. So the doctor once 

 more moved his mission, this time to about the 

 center of the present Seminole Reservation, five or 

 six miles from his former locations, right in the 

 heart of the Big Cypress, where he hoped to 

 establish an experimental farm. He put up a 

 number of buildings — a store, a dispensary, var- 

 ious shelters. He employed the Seminoles to dig 

 a couple of miles of drainage ditches about the 

 place. He himself worked far harder than any- 

 one else — without pay, mostly alone, always de- 

 voted, perfectly kind — while his people in Eng- 

 land urged him to return to them. He died at 

 the mission, suddenly, presumably of heart fail- 

 ure, in 1914. And now Glade Cross is jungle 

 again; only a few broken canoes mark the site of 

 Boat Landing; and the last site of all, still called 

 "Godden's Mission." is merely a weedy, haunted 

 ruin. The doctor's body was buried at Jm- 

 mokalee, a Seminole word which signifies "My 

 Home." — Perley Poore Sheehan. 



