21 
pepper plant we sought. It was on shell heaps at the mouth of 
the St. John’s River, most likely on this very mound, that this 
curious pee plant was discovered in Florida by Nathaniel 
Ware! in 1817. ater this early discovery about half a century 
otk f species of Peperomia was found in Florida. 
Within the next three decades three additional species of Pepero- 
mia were found. Thus, there are now five different kinds known 
: They : mae 
g 
8 
a 
Cur 
mic § seas pala ene the one under baie ea ot 
This ee grows, as far ow know, only on the refuse 
heaps left by the: F oa aborigines. It is oan only from 
th i 
It ihe to look as if this curious plant had some part in the 
the ancient inhabitants of Florida, perhaps in their 
ecclesiastical economy, just as the ia and other plants 
did in the case of the ancient and modern peoples—savage and 
civilized of various parts of the Old World and the New. 
Whatever may have been its relation to the lives of these old 
people, the removal of their kitchen-middens for road-making 
materials seriously threatens its existence. 
Wandering through the hammock on the shell heaps were a 
ackeys. - ese are seme Seana rather 
vi © woo 
between Jacksonville and Yulee were desolate. Several miles 
east of Yulee flowers began to appear, sparingly, however. 
2 Nathaniel A. Ware (17 id to I b ti f Massachu- 
setts, but most of his live was nee nt in the southern states. He studied and 
practiced law in South Car olina, but petted at Natchez, Mississippi, in terri- 
In lat 
torial days (before 1817), n later 
ears he lived at Philadelphia and Cincinnati, and he died at Ga Siaee 
His interest in the natural sciences was well known; Nall described man: 
new species of plants collected by him in East Flor rae West Flor! ida, 
and dedicated to him the cruciferous genus Warea.—. 
