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Although nettle-like in its character, it does not belong to the 

 nettle family but to the Euphorbia family and is sometimes 

 called Spurge-nettle. 



On returning from a stroll one usually finds his trouser legs 

 roughly patched with medium-sized ovate green leaves, whole 

 or in fragments. Sometimes parts of stems accompany the 

 leaves. It is a tedious task to remove them as the whole surface 

 is held tightly to the cloth by numerous barbed prickles and the 

 blade itself is so tender that only a little can be removed at a 

 time. It is best to let the leaves dry when they can be removed 

 by vigorous brushing. If one searches for the source of his 

 Poor-man's Patches, Mentzelia floridana, one discovers a low 

 branching plant with yellow flowers about three quarters of 

 an inch broad. 



On the sand dunes, along the canals, in abandoned culti- 

 vated fields and almost everywhere on dry ground a medium- 

 sized white flower with a yellow center is very abundant. As 

 one walks among them one finds his clothing covered with 

 spindle-shaped brown objects about one quarter of an inch long 

 with two to four barbed prickles at the broader end. We call 

 similar fruits in the north, Beggar-ticks, but these are named 

 Spanish or Shepherd's needles, Bidens pilosa. 



Walking in the low herbage in sandy soil one often hears a 

 sound like that of a baby's rattle. The cause is a low plant with 

 a yellow blossom about one-half inch broad and shaped like a 

 sweet-pea flower. The plant has pods like those of the common 

 cultivated pea but smaller. As they become dry the seeds rattle 

 whenever the pods are touched. This is the Rattle-box, Crotal- 

 aria pumila, or some similar species. 



From the standpoint of usefulness one of the most interest- 

 ing plants in the dune region — but more abundant in the dry 

 sandy pine land — is the Coontie, Florida arrow-root or Wild 

 Sago, Zamia integrifolia, belonging to the cycads. They are 

 easily mistaken for ferns. The seeds are borne in a cone like struc- 

 ture at the base of the cluster- of stiff leaves. This plant repre- 

 sents the lowest of the seed-bearing plants and is a sort of 

 connecting link between them and ferns. The long thick under- 

 ground stem from which the leaves spring is full of starch which 

 furnished a large part of the food of the Seminole Indians and 



