THE FLORIDA KEYS 47 



wind increases ever so little the waves tear down 

 and destroy. Again, the very same forces may 

 operate in exactly the opposite manner. But the 

 work never stops, — constructive or destructive, it 

 never ceases for one second. 



The flora of the entire chain of islands is inter- 

 esting, notwithstanding the terrible devastation 

 that man has wrought upon it. It is mostly 

 derived from the American tropics, the majority 

 of the plants being Cuban. Nearly all the higher 

 land was once covered with forest which varied 

 from low dense thorny scrub to tall closely set 

 growth. The latter has doubtless been long 

 established and a considerable amount of leaf 

 mold has accumulated. Usually in such ham- 

 mocks the ground is level and the rock is buried 

 beneath a vegetable humus. In this spongy soil 

 where one often sinks shoe deep little under- 

 growth is seen. Some of the trees are of goodly 

 girth and their straight trunks bear aloft dense 

 heads of foliage. Such hammocks still exist on 

 No Name, Pumpkin, Lignum-vitae, Old Rhodes, 

 Elliott's, and on Key Largo. A few years ago a 

 hammock that was perhaps the finest and most 

 extensive in the lower part of the State covered 



