WHERE FLORIDA FERNS GROW. 



By Hexry H. Negley. 



The rarest and most difficult ferns to procure in Flor- 

 ida are only to be found about 31 miles from Miami, 

 down the coast and inland about 6 miles, so that to get 

 them you have to drive from Miami. The road from 

 Miami to Cutler (15 miles) is a beautiful drive, a good 

 smooth, solid roadway all the distance. It runs through 

 a series of dense jungle hammock for about three-quar- 

 ters of the distance. ■ but frequently striking salt marsh 

 prairies which lay between the road and Biscayne Bay. 

 It is an ideal drive in every respect. Quite a number of 

 large grape fruit groves are to be seen in ail stages of 

 advancement, from those but recently planted to those 6 

 years old. bearing golden fruit. These groves were all 

 originally hammock land. The town of Cutler is but a 

 scattered village of some dozen houses and a fairly good 

 hotel. It is situated on a slope overlooking the bay. The 

 section of country in which the greatest number of ferns 

 grows lies about 16 miles southwest from Cutler, and the 

 only way to reach it at present * is by the newly made 

 homestead trails, for that is all they can be called. One 

 trip over this road in a buggy will certainly cure the most 

 stubborn case of liver complaint. It is the roughest sec- 

 tion of Florida that I have yet visited. It alternately 

 traverses very rock}- pine timber and scrub palmetto land 

 and swamp prairie, the latter the natural drainage of the 

 everglades to the bay. As they approach the bay they 

 decrease in width and become creeks (here called rivers). 

 These prairies vary in width from one-quarter to one 

 mile, and in the rainy season are covered by water from 

 two to four feet in depth. Roads across these places are 



* Since this was written the railroad has been extended to 

 within a few miles of the place described. 



107 



