226 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



about immediately send new branches into it and 

 in no time the space is filled with fresh growth. 

 It is evident that if any tree remained bare of 

 foliage for long its neighbors would steal its hard- 

 earned place in the blessed light and it would 

 perish. Although the forest around these particular 

 Ficus in Honduras had been cut away, and no 

 necessity existed for a hurry change of clothes, 

 yet these trees from force of habit did what their 

 ancestors had done for countless generations. 

 They took no chances. 



The Lower Florida winter climate is colder than 

 in the tropics and little tree growth is made during 

 the cool, dry part of the year. Consequently 

 haste is not so necessary in renewal of leaves. 

 Thus the mulberry remains leafless from fall 

 until spring. But the Ficus and some others 

 retain the instinct of their forefathers and remain 

 bare but a short time. 



The air roots of Ficus aurea (and sometimes their 

 branches) become fused together when they long 

 remain pressed in contact. Cases of natural 

 inarching, that is, uniting together two branches 

 in a longitudinal union, are very unusual. In my 

 own hammock a pigeon plum (Coccolobis floridand) 



