PABADISE KEY — SAFFOJBD. 



381 



At first glance these water plants appear to be of no economic 

 significance; but it is they which make animal life possible in the 



Fig. 1. — Sagittaria lancifolia. a, 



Growing in damp soil ; b, 



GROWING IN WATER. MUCH RE- 

 DUCED. 



Fig. 2. — Blue-flowered 



PICKEREL WEED, Poilte- 



deria cordata. Much 



REDUCED. 



Everglades. Aquatic insect larvae and water snails and bivalves 

 which feed on their roots and submerged stems, yield food to small 

 fishes; fishes, crustaceans, frogs and surface in- 

 sects are the food of larger fishes, snakes, alli- 

 gators, and birds. One of the most common 

 occurrences is to see a magnificent osprey swoop 

 down upon what appears a grassy prairie and 



Fig. 4. — Floating heart, Nym- 

 phoides aquaticum, a dainty 



WATER-PLANT OF THE EVER- 

 GLADES. 



Fig. 5. — Germinat- 

 ing SEED OF THE 

 WHITE SPIDER-LILY, 



Crinum americanum, 



SHOWING THE PECU- 

 LIAR DEVELOPMENT 

 OF THE BULB. HALF 

 NAT. SIZE. 



Fig. 3. — Water arum, 

 Peltandra virginica. Its 

 acrid starchy root, 

 called tuckahoe, 

 when thoroughly 

 cooked was eaten by 

 the Indians of Vir- 

 ginia. Much reduced. 



under the lens (pi. 8 

 Among the marsh 



rise with a good-sized fish in its talons. 



In addition to the plants just mentioned are 

 numerous sedges (pi. 5) and grasses (pi. 6). No 

 traveler in the Everglades will forget the terri- 

 ble " saw-grass" (pi. 7), which is really not a 

 grass but a sedge, the leaves of which as seen 

 ) are armed with very sharp, fine cutting teeth, 

 ferns are Acrostichum excelsum, with coarse, 



