258 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



would kill them. Fourth, they form the most 

 wonderful system for bracing and holding the 

 trees against storms and the fury of the sea. It 

 is rare indeed that mangroves are injured by the 

 assaults of the most violent hurricanes. 



Besides these important offices for the tree, 

 these roots greatly assist in building up and ex- 

 tending the land. They usually grow in soft mud, 

 which they so completely fill as to render very 

 firm. When a tree dies its roots do not decay 

 below the surface of the mud but form a peat in 

 which their forms are distinctly retained. I have 

 often seen the sea encroaching on the shore and 

 exposing old peat which was almost as hard as 

 some rock. Nothing could possibly be devised 

 better than these tangled roots for catching and 

 retaining the flotsam and jetsam of the sea. I 

 never look at these veritable traps, filled with every 

 conceivable kind of trash, without thinking of the 

 ballad of The Spider and the Fly in which the 

 latter says in answer to the invitation of the for- 

 mer: "He who goes up your winding stair shall 

 ne'er come down again." Whatever is carried in 

 among these roots stays. 



The growing roots vary from a quarter of an 



