100 



the southern gateway to the Hudson Highlands will be saved from 

 further destruction and that the required funds for the purchase 

 of the land known as Anthony's Nose are available. 



Dr. Harold N. Moldenke of the New York Botanical Garden 

 staff, delivered the popular lecture of the evening. The speaker's 

 abstract of "A Naturalist in Florida" follows : 



"In the southeastern United States there are some 5600 species of wild 

 flowering plants, or one-third more than there are in the northeastern states 

 (where there are only 3800). Of the total number in the Southeast, Florida 

 has over 3600, or 65 percent, including 130 ferns and fern-allies, 81 or- 

 chids, and 50 epiphytes. It is a land of many waters — 90 rivers, 110 

 large creeks, 200 lakes, 3,000,000 acres of everglades, and a coast line of 

 1,172 miles. Its largest lake, Lake Okeechobee, is the second largest fresh- 

 water lake entirely within the U. S. A. Aquatic and marsh birds naturally 

 abound, with 22 species of long-legged wading birds, including herons, 

 ibis, egrets, storks, and bitterns in abundance. Endemic plant and ani- 

 mal species and varieties are numbered in the hundreds. A relative of the 

 cultivated Boston fern is found in the rich hammocks with fronds seventeen 

 to twenty-eight feet in length and an orchid with inflorescences seven to eight 

 feet long, bearing up to a hundred flowers. Curious stream-lined water- 

 turkeys swim under water with sufficient speed to overtake fish, and 3 

 species of scavanger birds vie with each other in disposing of dead animal 

 remains. Among the distinctive ecological formations, each with its distinct 

 varieties of plants and animals, are the coastal dunes, the pinelands, the 

 hammocks, the everglades, the prairies, the costal mangrove lagoons, and 

 the cypress-heads. Sloughs often protect the rich hammocks from the devas- 

 tating everglade fires. Streams are often completely obscured by masses of 

 floating water-hyacinths or water-lettuce. Wild-cats and panthers inhabit 

 the more remote hammocks, alligators may still be found, and among the 

 serpents are the water-moccasin, diamond-back and pygmy rattlesnakes, 

 gopher-snake, and coral snake. Discovered first by Escalente de Fontanada 

 in. 1530, the everglades were called the Laguna del Espirito Santo, and the 

 islands in them (everglade keys) the Cayos del Espirito Santo. In the winter 

 the everglades may be dry, except for the natural streams and artificial 

 canals which run through them, or covered with only a foot or two of water, 

 but in the summer they are flooded, chiefly from underground streams which 

 break up through the thin overlying rock strata in thousands of places, to a 

 depth of ten or twelve feet. The region is unique and fascinating, a veritable 

 treasure-house for the naturalist, and one which should by all means be 

 preserved intact for posterity. It is urged that all friends of the great out-of- 

 doors unite with naturalists and conservationists in backing the proposed 

 Everglades National Park and in insuring its permanent maintenance." 



The meeting adjourned at 9.45 p.m. 



Clyde Chandler 

 Recording Secretary 



