51 
there, we went directly to Key Largo and spent several days ex- 
ploring the southern portion of that key for a distance of about 
fifteen miles. We found a considerable original forest about the 
middle of the key, where four species of cactus were quite com- 
n, two spreading opuntias, one spine-armed and one spineless, 
and two climbing forms, one a Cereus with three-angled stems, 
the other a Harrisia, with fluted stems. The leaf-mould i 
forest was very deep, in some places covering the ae . 
a depth of one or two feet, but curiously enough, herbaceous 
vegetation was almost, if not completely, absent, and places 
where humus-loving orchids should have grown were barren. 
In such places the only visible plant not a shrub or tree was the 
climbing fern Phymatodes exiguum, a tropical American plant 
known from the United States only on Key Largo. On parts of 
the key where the forest had been cleared off we found several 
plants evidently lately introduced from other parts of the tropics, 
while near the lower end of the island we found Zhrinar flort- 
dana growing at what seems to be the northern limit of the 
range of this beautiful palm, and also some specimens of the 
fourth species of cotton for the United States. 
Returning to our general headquarters for a day, we arranged 
to visit several heretofore unexplored Everglade Keys belonging 
to the upper part of the chain, some on the extreme southeastern 
side and some on the extreme northwestern side. The investi- 
gation of these islands resulted in the discovery of several nov- 
elties for the flora of the United States, a typically West Indian 
shrub or small tree new to the Florida mainland and a collection 
of fresh flowers of one of the rarer and very diminutive flowering 
plants of our flora. This plant consists mainly of a leafless un- 
branched stem commonly one or two inches tall, the whole thing 
so inconspicuous that it has to be hunted for on hands and knees; 
it might be designated as the smallest flowering plant bearing the 
largest names, for it has borne the generic name Polypompholx 
and the specific name /ongeciliata. \Ve encountered a peculiar 
phenomenon on a large island in the front prairie about eight 
miles below the settlement of Cutler. The tropical American 
fern Odontosoria clavata had heretofore been found in the United 
