HOME SURROUNDINGS. 163 



every where, nodding their gay little heads in the grass- 

 plats, the flower-beds, and the corn-field; then, you see, 

 they become ''weeds;" it is the same with the cypress vine, 

 the bona nox, and in fact with almost every plant that has 

 seeds. It is wonderful how persistently they sow them- 

 selves broadcast There is a miniature portulacca, with 

 pink floAvers about a quarter of an inch in diameter, a 

 native of the soil, that is rather pretty, but becomes a 

 nuisance because it degenerates into a weed and keeps one 

 constantly on the war-path. 



The ease with which delicate plants, guarded and cher- 

 ished at the North, perpetuate themselves in Florida, and 

 imitate the example of the famous Topsy, who was not 

 brought up, but ''just growed," is a source of surprise to 

 natives of the more chilly States ; but it is readily traced 

 to its cause, no freezing to kill the germs of the tender seeds. 



One of the most striking and distinctively tropical plants 

 that one can find to set out in the Florida flower-garden 

 is the native "yucca," or, as it is generally called, the 

 " Spanish bayonet." This is a curious plant found in the 

 hammocks, and bears transplanting to pine land very well. 

 It is formed by a straight spine, as it were, on which are 

 thickly set long, narrow, stifle-edged leaves, which droop 

 downward and are armed at the point with a sharp spine, 

 whence its name, "Spanish bayonet." It often attains a 

 height of ten or twelve feet, and here and there, especially 

 near the top, short stubs project, which, being detached 

 and planted, will soon root and start out in life on their 

 own account. This plant is an ornament of itself; but 

 when, in June usually, it sends upward one or more tall 

 stalks, three or four of them sometimes, thickly draped 

 with large, pure white, bell-like flowers, Avhat shall we say ? 

 It is then a beautiful object that one never tires of looking 

 at, and its snowy plumes attract the eye from a long dig- 



