FOKEST TEEES AND FOEEST SCENEEY 



Along the Gulf and in Florida the 

 dank forests of the swamps and river 

 bottoms, finding all the conditions fa- 

 vorable to a luxuriant vegetation, are 

 characterized by extraordinary complex- 

 ity of growth. Perhaps we enter some 

 secluded patch of virgin forest, and sit 

 down for a while in its dense shade, 

 impressed by the strangeness and soli- 

 tude of the place. Our curiosity is 

 aroused by the multifarious assem- 

 blage of trees, vines, and shrubbery, 

 and we wonder how many ages it has 

 been thus, and how far back some of 

 the oldest trees may date in their his- 

 tory. But they seem rather to have 

 no age at all; only to be linked in 

 some mysterious way with the dim 

 past out of which they have arisen. 



A mighty live oak leans across the 

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