159 
east of the Key filled with six feet or more of water and mud, in 
addition to being the home of alligators and water moccasins. 
These conditions and the weight of our camp outfit, rendered 
wading and swimming not only inadvisable, but 
question. We were thus forced to retrace our steps to so 
Jackson for the purpose of securing the remains of a disin- 
tegrating steel boat abandoned there by surveyors. After car- 
rying the boat over a ragged coral reef and dragging it over the 
partially submerged everglades for the distance of three miles, 
there was sufficient of the craft left to enable us to cross the 
above-mentioned slough in safety, and thus reach our objective 
point. We found the eastern end of the Key surrounded by an 
exceedingly dense hammock growth; in fact the vegetation 
there is penetrable only by the vigorous use of an axe. The 
hammock formation extends for a considerable distance from the 
margin of the Key, and instead of ending abruptly on a line 
where the growth of pine trees begins, the hardwood trees of 
the hammock and the pine trees grow intermingled, the former 
giving way only gradually to the latter until the pines finally 
SS naiseanie and the typical hes pineland is reached. he 
pinelands were too parched to yield much of interest, not yet 
having been Srousht back to nee normal condition by the rains, 
but the hammocks, less seriously affected by the drought, yielded 
rare and interesting ferns, orchids and bromeliads. The ham- 
mocks of Long Key differ conspicuously from all the others 
investigated in the neighboring region, on account of the copious 
growth of the long moss which is noticeable on the trees at a 
distance of two or three miles. This vas may be explored ad- 
vantageously in the autumn only. 
The latter portion of the time at our disposal was devoted to 
an investigation of the lower portion of the Homestead trail and 
our plans to go to Cape Sable by way of Long Key, but on reaching Miami we learned 
that the character of the country and the great distance forbade us to attempt to carry 
i i t t our disposal. Ca 
out that part of our plan with the field equipm we had a isposal. Cape 
Sable (Middle Cape) is 38 miles in a direct line from the eastern end of Long Key 
or from Paradise Key and 46 miles by the survey, and not 15 mi s lately recorded 
a by 
s Ames (Contributions from the Ames Botanical i No. 
