PREFACE 



\Yhile the southern end of the peninsula of Florida and its many 

 neighboring islands are not strictly within the tropics, in the sense of 

 extending below the Tropic of Cancer, their flora is distinctly tropical 

 nevertheless. That is doubtless due to the fact that the warm waters 

 of the Gulf Stream wash their shores and bring thither the climate 

 and conditions of the tropics lying not many miles to the southward. 

 Undoubtedly the same currents, too, lodge upon their shores the fruits 

 and growing parts of trees and other plants of tropical origin, and 

 their establishment there becomes a matter of course. Hence it is 

 that we may consider the flora of southern Florida and keys as dis- 

 tinctly tropical. 



As one enters the region from northern Florida he notices an almost 

 complete change of vegetation as he passes a line extending across the 

 peninsula approximately from Tampa Bay to Cape Canaveral. The 

 species he was familiar with in northern Florida have one after another, 

 with very few exceptions, been left behind, and the strange species of 

 the tropics have taken their places. Probably what has impressed him 

 first of the change is the appearance of the Cocoanut and Royal Palms', 

 with their enormous plume-like leaves waving in the breezes. On 

 reaching the "hammocks" of southern Florida he finds the change 

 quite complete, and he cannot fail to be impressed at the amazing 

 number of new trees, shrubs and vines which he finds within a given 

 area. They are mostly evergreen and some are found to be in both 

 flower and fruit most of the year through, or to produce flowers and 

 fruit more than once each year, entirely at variance with the habits of 

 northern species. 



Such trees commence growth at germination and apparently con- 

 tinue it until old age with very little if any periods of rest. As one 

 might infer, such trees shew very little if any evidence of annual rings, 

 in the cross-section of their wood, and he finds his old ideas of being 

 able to determine the age of a tree by counting its annual layers of 

 growth (rings in cross section) do not apply here. But that is not the 

 only nor the chief surprise that awaits him, if he look further into 



