PERIPATETIC BOTANY 115 



" Yes, if we only had ! " As it is, we content 

 ourselves with finding out a few things daily, 

 guessing at characters and relationships (no very 

 bad practice, by the way), running down all sorts 

 of clues, real or imaginary, like detectives on the 

 hunt for a murderer, and even asking questions 

 freely of chance passers-by, especially of the nu- 

 merous class known by the white people hereabout 

 as " Bahama niggers." They, rather than their 

 pale-faced superiors, seem to be observant of 

 natural things. It is likely, too, that they or their 

 forbears may have brought some traditionary 

 knowledge of such matters from the islands where 

 the plants are more at home. At all events, it 

 is pleasant to notice how ready even the black 

 children are, not only to answer questions, but 

 to ask them as well, about any flowers that one 

 happens to be carrying. 



The other day I came suddenly upon a bush, 

 the like of which I had seen and wondered over 

 a hundred times since my arrival in Miami, re- 

 marking especially the highly peculiar, almost 

 perpendicular carriage of its innumerable thick, 

 brightly varnished leaves, a device, as the pro- 

 fessor had suggested, for protecting them against 

 the vertical rays of the sun. I had never seen 

 either fruit or blossom, but here, oh this particu- 

 lar plant, my eye fell upon a few scattered pur- 



