460 RAMBLES IN FLORIDA. 
tonwoods, and specimens of the Spanish bayonet ( Yucca) 
trees frequently occur. Logs of the Pencil Cedar, that have 
drifted away from rafts, are lodged along the shore, or have 
been carried higher up by wind and tide; we turned many 
of them over and found numerous fine specimens of snails, 
Helix volvoxis and Helicina orbiculata, and a living scorpion. 
The spaces between the roots of the mangroves were filled 
with oysters which had also fastened to the roots, and a 
species of Modiola, closely resembling the common one, of 
the Atlantic coast, M. plicatula, but with somewhat finer 
sculpture, was abundant. The small oysters that are 80 
common everywhere along the shore, growing near the high- 
water line, are not generally eaten except by the raccoons, 
hence the common name for them of “coon oysters.” On the 
under side of detached lumps of these we found many rare 
little shells,* and several of the larger species of mollusks} 
especially the thorny conch, Melongena corona, may be seen 
prowling around, or half buried in the sand, at the edges of 
the oyster bars. The last named species is a famous oyster 
eater; but the law of compensation here intervenes, for the 
animal of the thorny conch is in turn eaten by many kinds 
of fish, for which it is an excellent bait, and it is therefore 
much used by the fishermen; the gulf trout also collect them 
on their own account, and it is quite common to find large 
shells of this species in their stomachs. 
The position of the sun told us that it was time to return; 
the heat was excessive, and constant tramping and stooping 
had made us tired. 
Cutting a bunch of palmetto leaves to use as a screen for 
our heads we struck a bee-line back to the shell-heaps ; half 




mats, and many other purposes of domestic economy, and the ‘cabbage,’ composed of 
the unexpanded y be classed among the delicious vegetables A of 
table; it is, however, a wasteful luxury as the tree always perishes when depri 
this part of its foliage.” Elliott's Botany, vol. 1, p. 432. inh in 
A new species of Pedipes, a tiny shell only eleven hundredths of - P de 
os was found at Rocky Point; it is described by me in the BS. 
Boston Society of Natural History, vol. xiii, as P. naticoides; it is the first of the genus 
| t Fasciolaria distans, Busycon 1 the latt 


7 + this place. 





