14 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [13:1— Jan., 1917 



This may happen before the last growth gains a good hold upon the 

 ground; and, as the vine rots and crumbles, it in turn falls over, to 

 die or to grow up as some sort of distorted weakling, or a crooked 

 support for still other growths. 



All this goes on continually from one year's end to another, and 

 man but rarely penetrates into such places; though thousands of 

 creatures, from a jaguar to a humming-bird, not to say thousands 

 of different kinds of insects, spiders, reptiles, and other forms, live 

 and die in such wildernesses where, for the most part, the gloom 

 of dense shadow reigns, and the light of day rarely enters. 



In the United States we have no such tropical forests, and I have 

 only seen them in Cuba and southern Mexico. Our tier of south- 

 ern Gulf states support but subtropical forests, and in them the 

 botanist meets with most interesting plant growths at all times of 

 the year, as I can vouch for from my experiences in Florida, 

 Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas. It is not to this 

 belt, however, that I desire to invite attention, but to the strictly 

 north temperate one that extends across the country to the 

 Mississippi Valley, where the winters are never as severe as in the 

 northern tier of states, or as mild as they are further southward 

 Northern Virginia and South Maryland lie directly in this belt, 

 and it extends westward to the region I have mentioned above. 

 Here a very severe winter may send the sap of trees and shrubs 

 far down, and eliminate every green thing above ground; or, on 

 the other hand, a mild winter may allow many plants — quite a 

 number of plants — to thrive in sheltered places from November 

 until spring comes again. As I write these lines in my Washington 

 home, we will have the first of November in three days; but if one 

 thinks that botanizing in the open is over and done with, one had 

 better think again and come nearer the truth next time. 



To be sure, much of the country resembles the scene I here 

 present in Figure i ; but even in such places the botanist will meet 

 with much to study and admire. All manner of pond growths have 

 gone to seed, as have numerous other plants which do not depend 

 on the presence of water during the summer months. Here one 

 may study the manner of many grasses of going to seed, — also the 

 cattails, pickerel weed, arum, and marsh mallow, with a host of 

 other interesting growths. 



As we pass to the fields and woods during these days in this 

 region, it is truly surprising to note that some of the early summer 



