346 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



transported by floating material; probably on the 

 very trees which were their homes, in bamboos or 

 as eggs in old or decaying logs. 



Throughout the American tropics the giant 

 bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris) grows abundantly, 

 especially along streams. During times of flood 

 great masses of it are often washed out and carried 

 down by the current to be stranded along the 

 valleys. After lying awhile the upper, thin-walled 

 joints begin to decay and split up. The ground 

 snails like to hide in cool, moist, dark places, so 

 these dead bamboos become their favorite resort. 

 C. B. Adams, who collected extensively in Jamaica, 

 states that he found quantities of them in these 

 upper joints. Perhaps during the next or a sub- 

 sequent rainy season some of these prostrate bam- 

 boos are again washed away and carried out to 

 \ sea, bearing their cargo of living snails. The 

 heavier mass of fibrous roots holds a large amount 

 of earth and stones which tend to sink the whole, 

 but the thick-walled lower joints are still air tight 

 and sustain the entire clump. I once saw in a 

 small bay on the north side of Jamaica a number 

 of these great bamboos floating in the water. 

 There had been a torrential rain, and they evidently 



