ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S. 125 



plenty of idle time upon their hands. On 

 the other side of the city were orange groves, 

 large, well kept, thrifty looking ; the fruit 

 still on the trees (March 20, or thereabouts), 

 or lying in heaps underneath, ready for the 

 boxes. One man's house, I remember, was 

 surrounded by a fence overrun with Chero- 

 kee rosebushes, a full quarter of a mile of 

 white blossoms. 



My best botanical stroll was along one of 

 the railroads (Sanford is a " railway cen- 

 tre," so called), through a dreary sand 

 waste. Here I picked a goodly number of 

 novelties, including what looked like a 

 beautiful pink chicory, only the plant itself 

 was much prettier (Lygodesmia) ; a very 

 curious sensitive-leaved plant (Schrankia), 

 densely beset throughout with curved 

 prickles, and bearing globes of tiny pink- 

 purple flowers ; a calopogon, quite as pretty 

 as our Northern pulchellus ; a clematis 

 (Baldwinii), which looked more like a 

 bluebell than a clematis till I commenced 

 pulling it to pieces ; and a great profusion 

 of one of the smaller papaws, or custard- 

 apples, a low shrub, just then full of large, 

 odd - shaped, creamy - white, heavy - scented 



