30 
We left on the night of October 23d, arriving at Jacksonville 
on the forenoon of the 25th behind schedule time, which necessi- 
tated a delay of 24 hours in reaching our destination. Part of 
this enforced delay was spent in exploring the pine lands in the 
immediate vicinity of that city, where observations were made 
and many desirable plants located, which were secured on our 
way north several weeks later. During the afternoon of the 
same day we moved over 100 miles farther south, along the east 
the coast. Here, as at Jacksonville, we located desirable and 
rare plants, which were likewise collected on our return north. 
We took our departure in the afternoon of the same day for 
Miami, our objective point. 
The Florida East Coast Railway, the only rapid means of 
communication with the eastern part of the peninsula, runs 
practically parallel with the shore, frequently within a few feet of 
the water’s edge, thus giving unobstructed views of the Halifax 
and Indian rivers. The country is in great part wooded, the 
most conspicuous tree for a long distance south being the pal- 
metto (Saéal Palmetto), which in many places forms dense forests 
to the exclusion of all other trees. It is in this region that the 
palmetto evidently reaches its maximum development, trees or 
groups of trees 70 feet in height being by no means uncommon, 
stunted appearance of the same tree in southern Florida and 
Georgia, The tall slender trunks, crowned with the showy mass 
of leaves, gave quite a tropical aspect to the whole landscape. 
While in the great majority of the trees the trunks were not 
clothed with the persistent bases of the old leaf-sheaths, in some 
cases the reverse of this obtained, the trunks being more or less 
clothed, in some cases entirely so, with the old sheaths, giving 
the tree quite a different appearance. This rarely occurred where 
the trunk was over 20 feet high. From our observations it 
seemed evident that this character of the old leaf-sheaths was 
merely an individual peculiarity, as the trees were otherwise alike. 
