FOREST TREES AND FOREST SCENERY 
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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