98 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



cinnamon and getting his mouth well burnt. 

 In a few places the stately royal palm is found 

 growing luxuriantly, and in some of the more 

 inaccessible swamps there are quantities of a 

 Cuban palm, Accslorraphe wrightii, confined in the 

 United States to this restricted south shore region. 

 It has fan-shaped leaves and slender stems which 

 reach a height of thirty feet, the whole growing in 

 dense masses possibly fifty feet across. It is as 

 light and graceful as a bamboo and is one of the 

 finest ornamentals of Florida. The common 

 cabbage palmetto (Sabal palmetto) is abundant, 

 probably the only tree in the region that is not 

 tropical. The sheathing bases of its leaves en- 

 close the young growing trunk, and when the 

 latter attains full size the sheathings are split open. 

 The blades of the old leaves fall, leaving the re- 

 mainder attached to the tree, sometimes twenty 

 feet high. These old leaf bases are commonly 

 called "boots," and while they remain they add 

 greatly to the picturesqueness of the tree. One is 

 sure to find a small botanical garden among these 

 boots, for they provide shelter and an ideal place 

 for the attachment of epiphytes. Around the 

 leaf bases is a thick and strong network of fiber 



