170 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



No doubt the first conflagration that raged 

 through, the lower Florida pine woods w/ought 

 terrible havoc and many species of plants were 

 completely destroyed. Of some perhaps a few 

 specimens in places less exposed to the heat sur- 

 vived. Since the pines have lived in fire-swept 

 areas from the very first, many young ones must 

 necessarily have escaped fatal injiu-y, and the 

 same must be equally true regarding other plants 

 living in such situations. 



Undoubtedly lightning fired the forest long 

 before human beings inhabited the region. Then 

 came prehistoric man, later the Indian, and at last 

 the Caucasian. At all events it is almost certain 

 that from the very beginning of the forest, fires 

 have swept through it at intervals of a few years. 

 I have seen such fires during a drought period 

 rush through the pines before a furious wind with 

 the speed of a horse. The fire leaps to the tops of 

 the tallest trees and with a hissing burst of red 

 flame consumes their leaves. Young pines fully 

 eight inches in diameter may be killed outright. 

 All herbaceous and shrubby vegetation is in- 

 stantly devoured, including the oily leaves of the 

 palmettos ; only their charred stems are left. Large 



