FROM ENGLAND TO FLORIDA 



resumed our journey. The season was now over, and the 

 hotel was closing in a few days. 



Now in truth we were soon able to understand something of 

 the real Florida, and the enthusiasm with which it is regarded 

 as a health resort in the Northern States, whence hundreds 

 of citizens migrate from December to April, to find warmth 

 and beauty in place of merciless frosts and snows. There are 

 two aspects of Florida : ( i ) the dismal swamps and wildernesses 

 haunted by alligators, crocodiles, pumas, and rattlesnakes ; (2) 

 the fragrant orange groves, palm-trees, and semi-tropical shrubs 

 and flowers, bright home of gorgeous butterflies and birds. 

 Beautiful, in the lovely morning, after the gloom of the previous 

 day, were the orange plantations, and the graceful fan palms 

 towering above the forest trees. From some of the latter, 

 festoons of moss-like growths hung like banners. All around, 

 the greenery was as that of an English June. Here were the 

 pine and other trees tapped to furnish materials for the 

 turpentine industry. Flights of buzzards were in the air. 

 The rivers we crossed, with their banks lined with palms, 

 would have reminded me of the Upper Nile but that the 

 ground was bright in its emerald herbage. One pool we 

 passed was a reservoir of flowering water-lilies, and there were 



