366 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



yards, has little yellow balls of stamens which scent 

 a large area of a calm night. The night blooming 

 "jessamine" is not a jessamine at all but a cousin 

 of the potato and tobacco plants. Its greenish 

 yellow blossoms open in the daytime and remain in 

 perfection for several days. Until after dark they 

 do not have the slightest fragrance; then some 

 magic influence of the night suddenly opens their 

 perfume cells and the wonderful odor pours forth. 

 In its native region, the West Indies, this perfume is 

 no doubt an invitation to certain nocturnal insects, 

 inactive by day, to come for honey and incidentally 

 to cross fertilize the blossoms. The fragrance of 

 this Cestrum is so strong that a small spray of its 

 blossoms will scent every room in a large house. 

 No words can give an adequate idea of the soft- 

 ness and brilliancy of the moon in Southern 

 Florida and the same may be said of the stars. In 

 the hammock the moonlight effect is wonderful 

 as it filters through the dense foliage and forms 

 varied patterns of light and shadow on the floor 

 of the forest. Looking up through the trees it 

 resembles the spray of an illuminated waterfall. 

 Out in the more open pine woods the shadows of 

 light clouds floating under the moon give almost 



