52 
dition of the coral rock with apparently barely enough soil to 
support plant life, the more diversified and abundant the vege- 
tation 
In marked contrast to the pinelands which always suggest a 
condition of drought are the hammocks in their perpetual moist 
condition. These small isolated associations of deciduous-leaved 
trees, shrubs and woody vines, harbor an almost incredible 
growth of herbaceous plants of various categories. The growth 
of epiphytes is especially striking for in numerous cases the tree- 
trunks and the branches to their tips are completely clothed with 
air plants, and so prolific are the orchids and bromeliads that 
many individuals are forced to grow on the ground and the 
neighboring pine trees. There the epiphytic flora of tropical 
character reaches a conspicuously greater development than in 
the Miami district. In addition to this ponderous orchid and 
bromeliad flora, the hammocks support a luxuriant growth of 
ferns all of a tropical type. Some of the species are confined to 
the trees, otHers to the curious and treacherous sink holes of 
varying size and depth, with which the hammock-floor is often 
honeycombed, while the ground is often carpeted with filmy 
ferns bearing leaves sometimes less than a quarter of an inch in 
diameter or gigantic sword-ferns with leaves not rarely over ten 
feet long. In crossing patches of the sword-fern we were sup- 
ported at a distance of three or four feet above the ground on the 
matted masses of the leaves. In one small hammock we dis- 
covered two new members for our arboreous flora, the one a 
nightshade not before known to grow to the proportions and size 
of a tree, the other a long-lost species of sumac 
The everglades between Cutler and Longview Camp consist 
of elongated prairies with a layer of sticky soil over the bed of 
coral rock. The vegetation comprises grasses, sedges, and other 
herbaceous plants, sometimes with a scattering of small or incipient 
hammocks. 
n that region two things at once arrest the attention of the 
newcomer from temperate regions, first the absence of familiar 
plants, second, the prolonged or perpetual blooming periods of 
most of the species. The division of seasons so marked in tem- 
