694 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



fields of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and 

 other vegetables, hundreds of acres in 

 extent. 



In some places pond apple trees and 



Imagine a weed twelve feet high, with a stem 

 a foot across I The water hemp or "careless" 

 {Acnida) is a pigweed which quickly takes pos- 

 session of the exposed bottom of Lake Okeecho- 

 bee or of cleared hammock. It attains its giant 

 growth in a single season, producing some wood 

 and reaching the proportions of a small tree 



ferns existed in association to the exclu- 

 sion of nearly all other woody and her- 

 baceous vegetation. Other areas were 

 densely clothed with an impenetra- 

 ble growth of southern elder, which 

 bears flowers and fruits continuously 

 throughout the year. Here and there 

 were groves of the pop ash (Fraxinus) , 

 or of the live oak (Quercus). The cy- 

 press w^as represented usually by iso- 

 lated trees. This cypress, for some rea- 

 son as yet unexplained, occurred in two 

 forms. If the tree trunk was only 

 slightly or not at all buttressed, very 

 numerous "knees" were produced from 

 the roots in the neighborhood of the 

 trunk ; while if the trees had developed 

 ])rominently buttressed trunks, very 

 few "knees" or none at all appeared. 

 Another interesting phenomenon olj- 

 served was the association of the stran- 

 gling fig and the cypress. Not a tree of 

 the cypress was observed that did not 

 have accompanying it a strangling fig. 

 This phenomenon was particularly con- 

 spicuous as the cypress was devoid of 

 its foliage and the fig was in full leaf. 



A few miles east of the settlement 

 we unexpectedly met a friend with a 

 horse and wagon, which he kindly 

 turned over to us for the day. We were 

 thus relieved from carrying our bur- 

 dens, but did not tax the horse with our 

 own additional weight, as he seemed to 

 be more fatigued than we by walking 

 in the spongy peat. 



The lowering of the water in the lake 

 had naturally lowered the water table 

 in the "peat," which normally contained 

 a very large percentage of water. Being 

 deprived of this moisture, the "peat" 

 had shrunk, and in many instances the 

 root systems of the trees were clearly 

 exposed, particularly in the case of the 

 cypress, where the connected system of 

 roots and "knees" was beautifully dem- 

 onstrated. 



The decayed vegetable matter of this 

 region forms a "soil" in which the mo^-t 

 rapid growth takes place, and several 

 crops of cultivated plants may be grown 



