92 



THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



rich black soil supports a luxuriant growth of trees, tangled 

 vines and weeds. The vegetation of the area fertilized by the 

 river is typical of the Gulf Coast country and sets off in sharp 

 lines a contrast most striking. The high ground — the land 

 outside of the old lake basin — is covered with grease-wood, 

 Spanish bayonets, chaparral, and various forms oi cactus. 



We were located in a cottage built on a pier over the bay, 

 and for a place in which to put away dull care and make faces 

 at a Texas summer, it would be hard to duplicate. In the 

 morning take a vasculum and ramble wherever something of 

 special interest appears, collect some of the rare specimens, and 

 after putting them to press, take a swim. Late in the evenings 

 a trip would be especially enjoyable among the halophytes that 

 were so plentiful just above high water line. Many kinds of 

 sea-weeds are washed in by the waves and a small bunch is 

 usually swarming with various forms of animal life — ^mini- 

 ature crabs, lobsters, shrimp, clams and sponges. Some of 

 these marine plants are very beautiful in form as well as color 

 and texture. There are algae of various shades of red and 

 blue and green, but a very common brown variety forms a rich 

 sepia that blends with the more striking colors to^ make an 

 artistic border. The long kelps are mostly under water so that 

 when the bay is calm they appear as a submerged field of culti- 

 vated plants. 



Possibly the salt cedar is the most striking tree. Calm, 

 dignified, and aristocratic, it appears as a patriarch of all the 

 trees and shrubs of the locality. Its gnarled trunk draped with 

 a graceful fringe of delicately shaded green, the friendty 

 trailing branches festoon a canopy just thick enough tO' make 

 the shade complete without interfering with the circulation of 

 the air. The sublime dignity and poetry of the surroundings 

 add a rare zest to a lunch in the salt cedar gardens. Of the 

 other cultivated plants that might be mentioned, the elite 

 oleanders — red, white, scarlet and yellow — which grow so 



