IN FLORIDA 39 



There is a class of vines which adheres to walls, the bark of trees, 

 rocks and the like by means of adventive roots, tendrils or tendril- 

 like processes which can be used to cover the stems of such trees. 

 In the upper part of the state such vines as Tecoma radicans, 

 Bignonia capreolata and Euonymus radicans are hardy and cling 

 to smooth surfaces. Ficus repens covers walls beautifully and 

 it should be hardy over the greater part of the state. The Bou- 

 gainvilleas can be made to climb to the tops of the tallest trees 

 and so can Bignonia venusta and all are superb ornaments 

 in winter. The Solanums, seaforthianum and wendlandi, the 

 Argyreias and Antigonons are fine for covering arbors, verandas, 

 or trees in the southern part of the state. I have a poultry yard 

 fence which was unsightly and I planted a vine of Ipomoea sidi- 

 oides at one corner of it several years ago. This has spread over 

 perhaps a dozen rods of the fence, has covered the poultry house 

 and a quarter of an acre of adjoining ground. Through December 

 every year it is covered with white blossoms until it resembles 

 huge banks of snow. By counting the flowers on a given space 

 and making an estimate of its entire surface I came to the con- 

 clusion that it bore a million flowers a day for over a month. I 

 have seen a sheet of moonflower covering the entire front of a 

 hammock for hundreds of feet, and a single specimen of Agdestes 

 clematidea completely hiding a half dozen large trees. There is 

 scarcely anything unsightly on one's place that cannot be covered 

 and beautified with vines. 



Florida is infested with a number of pestiferous weeds and 

 among the worst of these are the sand burs (Cenchrus spp.) of 

 which we have four or five species; Boerhaavia, a branching plant 

 with rounded wavy leaves and minute purple flowers followed by 

 small burs ; Bidens leucantha, a common weed with white flowers 

 and flat, two-awned seeds which attach themselves most lovingly 

 to every passer-by. All these spread themselves by their seeds 

 which fasten on man and beast. They are not indigenous to the 

 virgin forest, though they come in soon after cultivation com- 

 mences. Their seeds germinate only on or very near the surface 

 of the ground and if one will dig a hole in the sand two or three 

 inches deep and bury the plant and all its seeds, scraping all that 



