270 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



bare. At such times these fish collect in the little 

 pools left and in case the water recedes until they 

 too are dry they burrow down into the mud, re- 

 maining there until the return of the tide without 

 apparently suffering the least harm. It is quite 

 probable that the ooze protects them from the 

 cold and equally so that the process of breathing 

 is partially suspended during this mud bath. I 

 have taken them from the mud and replaced them 

 in water when they immediately became as active 

 as ever. 



Back where the mud becomes firmer and near 

 the meeting place of che swamp and dry land, we 

 find two species of coco plums (Chrysobalanus 

 spp.), our two Ficus (F. aurea and F. brevifolia), 

 Baccharis, a weedy shrub or small tree, one or 

 two of the Eugenias, and several of the trees 

 belonging in the regular hammock, outliers of 

 the upland forest. One of the littoral trees of 

 wide range is the button wood (Conocarpus erec- 

 tua), a tropical tree not related to the northern 

 sycamore of the same popular name. On the 

 higher, firm ground it is usually a tall shrub, but 

 in the least wet parts of the swamps it becomes a 

 large tree and is, without doubt, one of the strang- 



