A Sojourn in Cuba 
sprinkling of large papilionaceous blossoms 
among the short green grass. The long com- 
posites that bordered this little lawn were en- 
twined and almost smothered with vines which 
bore similar corollas in tropic abundance. 
I at once decided that these sprinkled flow- 
ers had been blown off the encompassing 
tangles and had been kept fresh by dew and by 
spray from the sea. But, on stooping to pick 
one of them up, I was surprised to find that it 
was attached to Mother Earth by a short, pros- 
trate, slender hair of a vine stem, bearing, be- 
sides the one large blossom, a pair or two of 
linear leaves. The flower weighed more than 
stem, root, and leaves combined. Thus, in a 
land of creeping and twining giants, we find 
also this charming, diminutive simplicity — 
the vine reduced to its lowest terms. 
The longest vine, prostrate and untwined like 
its little neighbor, covers patches of several hun- 
dred square yards with its countless branches 
and close growth of upright, trifoliate, smooth 
green leaves. The flowers are as plain and un- 
[ i59 1 
