THE TEN THOUSAND ISLANDS 73 



be found growing wild in several localities in 

 our State. When I came to Dade County seven- 

 teen fine specimens grew in a swamp just north of 

 my home. At Paradise Key, in the lower Ever- 

 glades, now a State park, over 2000 specimens, 

 large and small, survive. It is said that a very 

 tall royal grew in the vicinity of Cape Sable a 

 useful landmark for seamen, but that it was cut 

 down during the Civil War. This palm exists at 

 several places on the south and southwest coasts 

 of the State and also here in the Ten Thousand 

 Islands southeast of Cape Romano. At the time 

 I first visited this hammock in 1885 there were said 

 to be 500 large trees and in addition there were 

 great numbers of smaller ones. 



The coconut has been called "A marvel of 

 Titanic grace" and with equal propriety the 

 "royal" as it is generally called here, might be 

 styled a marvel of Titanic majesty. It attains a 

 height of a hundred and twenty feet and some- 

 times even more, towering up, far above the 

 tallest forest, where it spreads to the sun its regal 

 crown of intensely deep green, glossy leaves. No 

 other tree can be so appropriately called a king 

 and as one gazes at it he may well appreciate 



