50 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



(Bursera); wild tamarind (Lysiloma); Tremaflori 

 dana; cat's claw (Pithecolobium) ; poison tree (Me- 

 topium), and a few other low trees constitute the 

 main scrub. On the Upper Keys there are acres 

 of stunted century plants, often growing so densely 

 that it is impossible to get through; with them 

 are several kinds of Opuntias or prickly pears and 

 the terrible Cereus pentagonus which sprawls over 

 all. In lower ground a Bumelia (B. angustifolia) , 

 usually a dense shrub, has narrow leaves and vicious 

 thorns. A half vine (Amerimnon) almost fills 

 solid the spaces in which it grows. One could no 

 more force his way through a haystack than 

 through a patch of this shrub. And everywhere 

 the whole is literally bound together by the pull- 

 and-haul-back (Pisonia), the vilest thorny shrub 

 in Florida. 



The breeze is almost entirely shut out of this 

 dense scrub; usually millions of mosquitoes and 

 sand flies torture anyone entering it during the 

 warmer part of the year, and sometimes even in 

 the winter. I have had a good deal of experience 

 as a naturalist collector in temperate, subtropical, 

 and tropical regions and I am ready to go on 

 record with the statement that the wilds of Lower 



