i88 IN LOWER FLORIDA fVILDS 



and to him who is in harmony with nature there 

 is nothing more alluring in all the land. No more 

 attractive place for the botanist can be found, for 

 its floor is the meeting ground for hundreds of 

 small tropical plants and for many others of more 

 northern habit. Here are always beautiful, odd, 

 and interesting things in blossom and they present 

 a succession of rich color throughout the year. 

 There are many beetles, diptera, and orthopters, 

 while butterflies abound, especially along the 

 sunny borders between pineland and hammock. 

 During times of abundant rain immense numbers 

 of small land snails of several species may be found 

 on or under the loose rocks, or even venturing for 

 a short distance up the trunks of trees. 



Here the forces of nature are always active; 

 here is life of the most virile type; here birth, 

 growth, death, and extermination are in constant 

 operation side by side. Here are some of nature's 

 most wonderful devices for protection against the 

 constant menace of the destroyer — fire; here are 

 some of the clearest examples of the survival of 

 the fittest. 



The scientific wonders of the pinelands are not 

 their only lure. Notwithstanding the monotony 



