106 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



one hundred and fifty years old at St. Augustine! 

 These ancient trees were killed in 1835 by perhaps 

 the severest cold ever recorded in Florida. Since 

 then there have been such repeated cold spells 

 and at such short intervals that many of the more 

 tender plants have never recovered. 



At the point where we visited Coot Bay the 

 shore was covered with a dense growth of button- 

 wood. In this low, swampy thicket Mr. Roberts 

 showed me the ruins of a shack built and occupied 

 by the late J. E. Layne, a young man of much 

 ability, who devoted his life to collecting the plants 

 of the southwestern part of the State. The 

 wretched little hovel could not have been more 

 than ten feet square; it was made of poles and only 

 a couple of feet above the mud and water. Here, 

 alone, in this desolate place, tormented with in- 

 sects, he did excellent work as a collector and 

 botanist. Why did he abandon civilization and 

 become a hermit; was it trouble or desire for dis- 

 covery? He died from exposure and the want of 

 proper care, a martyr to the cause of science. 



In a low hammock we found an abundance of 

 the superb epiphytal orchid Oncidium luridum, 

 with heavy, broad, folded leaves, often three feet 



