250 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



large specimens may be eighteen feet or more in 

 diameter at the ground. Here it does not attain 

 to the height or dimensions it does farther north, 

 but it becomes one of our largest trees. Scattered 

 through the swamp are erect, conical, woody 

 growths known as "cypress knees," sometimes as 

 tall as a man or even more, with neither branches 

 nor leaves. To one who has never seen them 

 before they are certainly most incomprehensible. 

 Covered with bark and often fluted or buttressed, 

 the growth of the wood usually goes up one side 

 of the knee and turning at the top passes down the 

 other, the whole being occasionally hollow. For 

 a long time scientists were unable to account for 

 these strange growths, but it is now generally con- 

 ceded that they are pneumatophores or aerating 

 organs which furnish oxygen for the trees, and 

 the hollow, fluted bases of the trunks probably 

 function in the same way. 



As one proceeds through the swampy ground 

 along the stream he will notice in many places 

 that the mud of the banks is covered with tree 

 roots of various kinds. They not only come to 

 the surface but often project up and they roll 

 over and clasp each other in a most fantastic 



