Botanizing in the Fall and Winter Months 



By Dr. R. W. Shufeldt 



(Illustrated with photographs by the author) 



As everyone knows who studies wild flowers afield, the collecting 

 locality and the season are two very important factors to be taken 

 into consideration. In most high northern latitudes the botanist 

 finds but little to interest him, after the autumn days have sur- 

 rendered, to the advance of all that winter brings with it. This 

 is not the case, however, in the typically tropical regions, for there 

 we find vegetation of all kinds flourishing throughout the year. 

 Very well do I remember, when I lived in Cuba, in the suburbs of 

 Havana, how the plant and tree growths astonished me; I saw 

 orange trees in blossom, with dead-ripe oranges on the same tree. 

 In the dense tropical jungle and forest there is a perpetual plant 

 strife going on 'at all times throughout the entire year. Trees, 

 great vines, hundreds of varieties of flowering plants struggle 

 eternally with their neighbors to hold their ground, keep erect, and 

 in many cases to maintain positions and attitudes whereby they 

 may receive what sunlight comes to them. 



In tropical forests I have seen trees where, when their fruit has 

 ripened, it has fallen and lodged in one of the forks or crotches 

 formed by limbs springing from either the main trunk, or from 

 larger limbs. Such places often have a mass of decayed leaves or 

 other rotten plant refuse in them, and here the ripened seeds of 

 which I speak would take root, soon become young trees, and 

 threaten the life of the parent tree. The roots struggle down to 

 the ground, and with this added sustenance they soon become trees 

 growing upon another tree, which latter begins to weaken under the 

 burden it is called upon to support. Then along would come 

 some parrot or monkey, and make a home in the parasitic tree. 

 They carry nuts and other kinds of seeds there, and among them 

 perhaps the seeds of some great vine. These in turn take root in 

 some crotch or other, and the vine in time sends its roots down to 

 mother earth. In a little while the vine spreads all over both trees, 

 while a second vine, coming up from the ground, fills in all below 

 as it creeps from limb to limb. The trees now die, rot, and fall 

 over. This causes both vines to come down in a heap, and, the 

 seeds of some more vigorous growth lodging upon them, the day 

 comes when the vines, too, die as did the trees they strangled. 



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