204 IN LOWER FLORIDA WILDS 



world no more sudden and terrible change from 

 beauty to hideousness than is this. If the leaf 

 mold which forms the forest floor becomes ignited 

 and burns to the rock below, then indeed the 

 rout is complete and all is killed. If not, then the 

 paralyzed, prostrate victims may recover. 



Enter this ruined forest two months later and 

 green, fresh leaves and young growth will be peep- 

 ing out in many places. Even some apparently 

 dead trunks will be thrusting forth new foUage 

 and branches. In one season the hammock 

 begins to regain some of its lost beauty, although 

 the cruel fire marks are still there. New Brome- 

 liads and other epiphjrtes will be found on the 

 dead trees; vines will scramble over the charred 

 trunks, in places well nigh screening their ugliness 

 from sight. In ten years the ground will be fuUy 

 covered with growth and the uninitiated would 

 not suspect that fire had ever ravaged the spot. 

 So the struggle goes on year after year and age 

 after age between the vegetative forces and the 

 fire, but I am inclined to believe that before the 

 advent of the white man the hammocks were getting 

 the best of it. 



In places along the fire-swept edges of the ham- 



