JOURNAL 
OF 
The New York Botanical Garden 
VoL. XXIV January, 1923 No. 277 
LAND OF THE QUESTION MARK 
REPORT ON EXPLORATION IN FLORIDA IN DECEMBER, 1920 
glance at the map of the continental United States will 
A 
show that Florida—the most southern State of the Union— 
suggests the shape of an interrogation eS There is a fitness 
in this. The geographical ple of the State, particularly of 
that great tongue of land ust oe hu ndreds of miles 
into tepid seas, implies a alan North America 
and thus makes the question mark—so ay as botanists are 
concerned—-both a challenge and an invitation. Not one, but 
myriad que ions, moreover, are suggested by that note of 
a conuniation eee and investigations mentioned 
usly on these pages, the writer arranged to spend the 
sels weeks of December, 1920, in further search aa study 
y- 
The particular objects of our search were coonties (Zamia), 
spider-lilies (Hymenocallis), lilies (Crinum), prickly-pears (Opun- 
tia), and wild-pepper plants (Peperomia), while special informa- 
tion was sought re certain geological formations and 
thei: sae coverin 
Incidentally, en route, the great panorama extending from 
New York to Florida mone many problems, and, in some 
cases, also offered t 
The meadows and hills ‘of ee aaa part of the Coa: 
Plain, ee the long-extended warm fall, and little a 
weather after the late and ae only nee frosts, were desolate. 
