155 
hurricane mentioned above. Big Pine and Little Pine Key were 
the least damaged of the islands visited. Their coastal ham- 
mocks acted to some extent as a barrier to protect the interior 
from the searching effect of the salt spray. The pine forests 
which occupy most of the area there are in ee vast level 
parks with the Caribbean pine and four or five kinds of palms 
grouped in infinite variety, and accompanied by herbs, vines 
and shrubs. The depressions in the rock which composes the 
structure of the islands were either filled with masses of the saw 
Fig. 31. A palm barren on Cudjoe Key. These prairie like expanses are 
mainly coveted: by a carpet of Brasses and sae and showy-flowered herbs. 
1 shrubs, but getation is composed of palms. 
The cabbage palm and the thatch palm predomi nate. A small clump of the saw 
palmetto may be seen in the center of the picture. The arboreous palms in this 
landscape are all cabbage palms. 
palmetto or with saw-grass, the latter forming miniature Ever- 
glades. Not only do we find the vegetation different from that 
of the upper keys and related to that of the mainland, but the 
animals characteristic of the mainland, such as the deer, the 
