ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 81 



house wren, chattering at a great rate 

 among the " bootjacks " (leaf-stalks) of an 

 overturned palmetto-tree, with an occasional 

 mocking-bird, cardinal grosbeak, prairie 

 warbler, yellow redpoll, myrtle bird, ruby- 

 crowned kinglet, phoebe, and flicker. In 

 short, there were no birds at all, except now 

 and then an accidental straggler of a kind 

 that could be found almost anywhere else in 

 indefinite numbers. 



And as it was not the presence of birds 

 that made the river road attractive, so nei- 

 ther was it any unwonted display of blos- 

 soms. Beside a similar road along the 

 bank of the Halifax, in Daytona, grew mul- 

 titudes of violets, and goodly patches of pur- 

 ple verbena (garden plants gone wild, per- 

 haps), and a fine profusion of spiderwort, 

 a pretty flower, the bluest of the blue, 

 thrice welcome to me as having been one of 

 the treasures of the very first garden of 

 which I have any remembrance. "Indigo 

 plant," we called it then. Here, however, 

 on the way from New Smyrna to Hawks 

 Park, I recall no violets, nor any verbena 

 or spiderwort. Yellow wood-sorrel (oxalis) 

 was here, of course, as it was everywhere. 



