A BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO THE BIG CYPRESS 



49! 



We drove into a small hammock within 

 half a mile of the slough and prepared to 

 camp there for the night. Many interest- 

 ing plants were collected on the prairies 

 near the slough before darkness drove us 

 back to camp. Indian plantains (Mesa- 

 denia), foxgloves (Agalinis), and helio- 

 tropes (Heliotropium) grew nearly every- 

 where. Fully as interesting as the native 

 plants was the climbing black-eyed Susan 

 (Thunbergia alata), which we found ex- 

 tensively naturalized on the prairie near the 

 Okaloacoochee. The plants now growing 

 there may be the descendants of specimens 

 introduced and cultivated in gardens the 

 Seminoles maintained there fully a century 

 ago. 



The following morning we broke camp 

 about daybreak and proceeded to cross the 

 slough. We parked our cars in its midst on 

 the very spot where, it is said, more than 

 sixty years ago Lieutenant Harsuff's com- 

 pany of engineers had their sanguinary clash 

 with Chief Billy Bowlegs — after they had 

 destroyed the old chief's garden just to 

 "see old Billy cut up." 



The larger trees of this hammock con- 

 sist of the bald cypress or river cypress 

 (Taxodium distichum) . It was a favorite 

 spot for the Indians to obtain logs for mak- 

 ing their dugout canoes. In the rainy sea- 

 son there is commonly about six feet of 

 water in the slough. After the rainy season 

 the water table is naturally lowered by 

 seepage. The waters, evidently, find their 

 way directly into the Everglade basin, and 

 directly or indirectly into the Gulf of 

 Mexico. In the dry season most of the 

 slough can be traversed on foot. It was the 

 custom of the Indians to go to the slough in 

 the dry season, cut down the trees they 

 selected for making the canoes, and then 

 wait for the wet season and high water 

 to float the logs out toward the western 

 coast. 



We went down the slough afoot just as 

 the thousands of birds in the rookery were 

 awakening. The birds mostly represented 

 several species of ibis, and were present by 

 the hundreds and thousands on the large 

 cypress trees. In fact, they were so crowded 

 on some of the giant cypresses that they 

 were continually falling off for want of 

 sufficient room to etand. As a consequence 

 of not having been much disturbed by man, 

 they were so tame that one could walk 



In the Okaloacoochee Slough dead trees as well 

 as living serve as part of the ibis rookery, for 

 the birds are so numerous that any available 

 space is used. Their nests are rude cradles of 

 sticks in the trees or on ledges of rock. During 

 the day the birds leave the rookery, traveling in 

 more or less definite groups or companies. This 

 photograph was taken in the morning, after the 

 greater number of the birds had departed 



