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made along the northern side of the largest key for more than 

 half its length. The everglades seem to be lower on the northern 

 side than on the southern, for we found them submerged, and 

 when the depth of the water prohibited further progress we grad- 

 ually worked across the key towards the south, and returned to 

 the supply-camp across the higher prairies. A third journey 

 was made along a course close to the southern side of the largest 

 key for eight or nine miles to the west, and then up through the 

 narrow intersecting prairie into the everglades on the north side 

 directly west of the point where we were forced to turn south on 

 the second journey. We then returned to the supply-camp, 

 crossing the largest key through both pinelands and hammocks. 



"The last day of the Long Key expedition was devoted to 

 work on Royal Palm Hammock and the two smaller islands ad- 

 jacent to its western side. Royal Palm Hammock is remarkable 

 for thegrowth of palms [Roystonea regia), from which it takes its 

 name. These trees are visible across the open everglades almost 

 as far as the eye can reach, and curiously enough this species of 

 palm is confined to this island, with the exception of two plants 

 which grow on the small key which lies near its western side 

 and a very few plants which exist on a key about two miles 

 directly east. Royal Palm Hammock is also noted as being the 

 only locality in the United States where several tropical American 

 epiphytic orchids grow naturally. 



"We were surprised to meet with a number of plants, both 

 herbaceous and woody, characteristic of more northern or cooler 

 parts of the country. Among the woody plants the more con- 

 spicuous were the laurel-leaved greenbrier {Sniilax laurifoiia), 

 Ward's willow {Salix longipes), sweet bay {Magnolia virginiand), 

 Virginia creeper {Partlienociss^is qiiinquefolia), persimmon (^Dio- 

 spyros virginiana), French mulberry {Callicarpa a?nericana\ and 

 buttonbush [Cephalanthus occideiitalis). The most interesting of 

 these was the sweet bay, which occurred in diminutive forests, 

 the plants assuming the form of a tree and ranging from one to 

 three feet tall. Their trunks were characteristically buttressed, 

 with a diameter of several inches at the base, tapering to about 

 one half an inch a foot above. The diminutive trees bore both 

 flowers and fruit. 



