DOWN THE HALIFAX RIVER. 59 



southern insect, and is thought to be beneficial, inas- 

 much as it' has been found feeding on its distant 

 cousin, the injurious harlequin cabbage bug Mur- 

 gantia Tiistrionica Halm. ; however, it is known to 

 injure cotton bolls and oranges. 



In the afternoon I visit Captain Wardwell, the 

 owner of a small steamer which plies up and down 

 the Halifax River. He is a good observer of nature, 

 and showed me many interesting specimens. Among 

 them were part of a tusk, a tooth and several verte- 

 bra of a mastodon, Mastodon americanus Linn., 

 taken in the marl beds underlying a nearby ham- 

 mock; also the "ear bones" of a whale, picked up on 

 the beach. 



March 14, 1899. This morn I arose at 5:30 

 o'clock, breakfasted at six and rode in an ice wagon 

 to Daytona, a village five miles below Ormond. Here 

 I took a gasoline launch with a party bound for Mos- 

 quito Inlet, at the mouth of the Halifax River. The 

 ride was a pleasant one. The lower part of the 

 river is dotted with many islands. On these grows in 

 profusion that curious tropical production, the man- 

 grove, Rliizophora mangle L., a small tree or shrub, 

 with obovate-oblong leathery leaves and seeds which 

 germinate within the fruit while the latter is still 

 hanging on the branch. The radicle extends down- 

 ward until it reaches the ground where it roots, thus 

 forming new trees and almost impenetrable thickets. 



