THE LURE OF THE PINEY WOODS 173 



cost many thousands of lives in the learning. 

 The plants of the pine woods must bury all that 

 is essential to their existence down where the heat 

 cannot injure it, or if it is above ground it must be 

 fire-proof 1^ 



Some of these plants have thick underground 

 stems, such as the comptie (Zamia floridana), 

 with its large parsniplike roots. It is a dioecious 

 plant, blooming in winter and spring, just when 

 the forests are most subject to fires. It probably 

 cannot change its period of blossoming to a less 

 dangerous season but it has developed an efficient 

 device for protecting its flowers and fruit from the 

 fire. These are contained in a large reddish brown 

 cone, the outside of which is padded with thick, 

 velvety, peltate plates with the edges set closely 

 together; each is supported by a stout stem spring- 

 ing from the central one. The flowers are at- 

 tached to the inside of these plates and when they 

 develop the latter spread a little apart to enable 

 the necessary exchange of pollen. At the time of 

 blooming, if a fire sweeps the forest these thick 

 plates close tightly together. They are doubtless 

 excellent non-conductors and as the cones are close 

 to the grotmd it is rarely they suffer fatal injury. 



