LIFE IN FLORIDA. 207 



Chapter XIV. 



LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



Animal and vegetable life in Florida is in striking 

 contrast with what I see around me at the North. I 

 can botanize all winter without leaving home, and not 

 only do I find many plants new to me, but some are 

 new to science, having been overlooked by tourists and 

 naturalists who take a wide range, not being obliged to 

 settle down and stay in one spot. 



Even the streams and pools of Florida are no more 

 like those of the North than is the vegetable and animal 

 life with which they abound. Alligators and strange 

 fish and many wonderful plants live in the deep, nar- 

 row streams that find their way to the broad St. John's. 

 And the St. John's itself, where is its like ? Five 

 miles broad, flowing northward, deep and dark, but not 

 always quiet and lazy — so depicted by some poetic 

 writers — as we who live upon its banks can testify. A 

 strong north-east wind will soon agitate and stir the 

 water almost to its very depth, making it extremely 

 dangerous for small boats. But there are weeks to- 

 gether when the river is so quiet that we feel perfectly 

 safe to trust ourselves upon its placid surface in a row- 



