Eaton : Pteridophvtes observed in Florida 459 



and tide-swept, most of the few habitations being on immense 

 shell-heaps left by the aborigines. Even at Flamingo the shores 

 are low, and impregnated with salt, and few ferns are found there. 

 The same is true of Whitewater Bay. Back from the coast a few 

 miles there stretches an immense belt of cypress forest, interspersed 

 with open "prairie," all more or less covered with water during a 

 part of the year. There is a coral outcrop about ten miles from 

 Everglade on which a few pines are found, and a hammock similar 

 to those on the east coast at Deep Lake, now mostly cleared and 

 set with orange trees. The "cypress" proper bears few species 

 of epiphytes and no terrestrials, but in the numerous "heads" 

 (low places containing water all the year) there is a deciduous 

 growth of pop-ash {Fraximts carolinianus) and there are also 

 hammock-like growths of oak and bay, on which some ferns 

 thrive. Except for a small region in the Fahkahatchie cypress I 

 saw no place which appeared especially congenial to ferns. 



OPHIOGLOSSACEAE 

 Ophioglossum palmatum L. 



Very rare. Found only once on the east coast, in decaying 

 leaf-bases and fern roots at the top of a cabbage palmetto at 

 Snapper hammock, putting forth fruit in the middle of November. 

 A few specimens were found at Deep Lake, 1 5 miles northeast of 

 Everglade, and the species was found to be quite common on 

 Alligator Bay, at head of Turner's river, about 20 miles south of 

 Everglade. At the latter place the palmettos were in a narrow 

 border of trees between the bay and the everglade, a strip too 

 swampy to burn, to which fact — since the glade was yet smok- 

 ing from a recent fire — I owed my specimens. The plants were 



growing in the interstices between the old leaf-bases at varying 

 heights, but always in the loose fiber. This is very tinder-like 

 and when ignited burns to the utter destruction of its epiphytic 

 flora. The inhabitants set fire to whatever will burn, and the 



Oph 



minated. 



Ophioglossum pusillum Nutt. 



very 



sandy arm of the prairie in the pine woods at Little River. 



