A Sojourn in Cuba 



sprinkling of large papilionaceous blossoms 

 among the short green grass. The long com 

 posites that bordered this little lawn were en 

 twined and almost smothered with vines which 

 bore similar corollas in tropic abundance. 



I at once decided that these sprinkled flow 

 ers had been blown off the encompassing 

 tangles and had been kept fresh by dew and by 

 spray from the sea. But, on stooping to pick 

 one of them up, I was surprised to find that it 

 was attached to Mother Earth by a short, pros 

 trate, slender hair of a vine stem, bearing, be 

 sides the one large blossom, a pair or two of 

 linear leaves. The flower weighed more than 

 stem, root, and leaves combined. Thus, in a 

 land of creeping and twining giants, we find 

 also this charming, diminutive simplicity 

 the vine reduced to its lowest terms. 



The longest vine, prostrate and untwined like 

 its little neighbor, covers patches of several hun 

 dred square yards with its countless branches 

 and close growth of upright, trifoliate, smooth 

 green leaves. The flowers are as plain and un- 



