ing to about five dozen. The Ragged Keys lie about five miles 

 south of Soldier Key and consist of about six islands, the 

 majority of them being larger than Soldier Key. 



" The first attempt to reach Long Key was defeated by the 

 high water in the everglades caused by recent rains. While 

 waiting for the water to subside, we visited Key Largo and spent 

 several days exploring the southern portion of that key for a dis- 

 tance of about fifteen miles. We found a considerable original 

 forest about the middle of the key, where four species of cactus 

 were quite common, two spreading opuntias, one spine-armed 

 and one spineless, and two climbing forms, one, a Cereiis, with 

 three-angled stems, the other, a Harrisia, with fluted stems. 

 The leaf-mould in the forest was very deep, in some places cov- 

 ering the coral-rock for a depth of one or two feet, but curiously 

 enough, herbaceous vegetation was almost, if not completely, 

 absent, and places where humus-loving orchids should have 

 grown were barren. \\\ such places the only visible plant not a 

 shrub or tree was the climbing fern, Pliymatodes exiginun, a trop- 

 ical American plant known from the United States only on Key 

 Largo. On parts of the key where the forest had been cleared 

 off several plants were found evidently lately introduced from 

 other parts of the tropics. 



" The rains having become less frequent and a steady dry 

 southeast wind having set in. Long Key was reached, and a 

 supply-camp established on the eastern end, from which point 

 exploring trips were made to different localities. 



" On the most distant island visited we found another tree to 

 add to the arboreous flora of the United States. Returning we 

 crossed portions of the three larger islands which form the back- 

 bone of the group, exploring both the pinelands and such ham- 

 mocks as had not been burned out by recent fires. The flora of 

 the pinelands was both rich and interesting, but that of the small 

 hammocks turned out to be rather disappointing as compared 

 with that of the hammocks twenty miles to the northeast. The 

 larger hammocks certainly contained a more varied flora than the 

 smaller ones, but the fires had been so recent that not a plant 

 could be found in a condition to collect. The second journey was 



