THE LURE OF THE PINEY WOODS 181 



they are usually burnt off about the time they 

 begin to assume treehood. One of these is only a 

 shrub at best, as it rarely attains a height of a 

 couple of feet. Yet it bears fine, dark-colored 

 acorns sometimes three quarters of an inch in 

 diameter, and the crop is occasionally so heavy 

 that the little stem bends under the load. It is 

 the Quercus minima, most aptly named, and having 

 spiny leaves like those of holly. This species is 

 one of the smallest of the genus while the live oak, 

 common throughout our territory, becomes under 

 favorable circumstances our largest tree. Speci- 

 mens sometimes have a trunk diameter of five feet, 

 and one of them in the Paradise Key hammock 

 has a crown that measures two hundred and eight 

 feet across. 



Among the herbaceous plants found in the pine 

 woods is a slender, unarmed vine so abundant in 

 places that it completely covers the low scrub. It 

 looks much like one of the dodders common through- 

 out the temperate parts of the United States. 

 Its leaves are but minute scales, its whitish flowers 

 are in small clusters ; it grows in dense mats ; it is 

 a parasite. The dodders have all these characters 

 but are unrelated to our creeper. Ours is a bo- 



