BEWILDERMENT 



If any untraveled Northern botanist wishes to 

 be puzzled, hopelessly confused, clean put out 

 of his reckoning, let him come to Miami. His 

 knowledge will drop away from him tiU not a 

 rag is left. Let hitn arrive, as I did, after dark, 

 and in the morning take the road southward to 

 Cocoanut Grove. The distance is only five nules, 

 and the walking excellent. I should like to go 

 with him, and listen to his exclamations and 

 comments. 



The cocoanut palms before the hotel, as he 

 leaves the piazza, he has no need to inquire 

 about ; such things he has at least seen in pic- 

 tures. And the parti-colored crotons, likewise, 

 are nothing new ; he has seen the like in hot- 

 houses, if nowhere else. And the scores of big, 

 roiind hibiscus bushes, each with its score or two 

 of regal scarlet blossoms, — these, or poverty- 

 stricken imitations of them, he has admired before 

 now in the Boston Public Garden and elsewhere. 

 The acalypha shrubs, also, he will perhaps recog- 

 nize upon a second look, though he has never 

 before seen them growing as a hedge, carefully 



