10 
PLANTS OP DADE COUNTY, PLORIDA 
uralized throughout the tropics, but is 
believed by Prof. Sargent to be a native 
of Texas. 
A nearly related tree, the Leucaena 
glauca, a native of South America, is. 
also naturalized in South Florida. It 
has very attractive foliage and brown 
seed pods, the flowers being white. If 
once introduced into a place it spreads 
rapidly and becomes a nuisance. 
There is a species of lignum-vitse 
found growing on the Florida Keys 
(Guaiacum sanctum) which has small, 
dark-green, glossy, pinnate leaves and 
attractive blue flowers, that is worthy 
of cultivation, though it is a slow 
grower. 
The Paradise Tree (Simaruba glau¬ 
ca) grows abundantly in hammocks, and 
when cultivated where it has room is a 
strikingly handsome tree. It has rather 
large, long pinnate leaves of leathery 
texture, extremely glossy and attractive. 
It contains an excessively bitter prin¬ 
ciple, and is one of the trees that fur¬ 
nishes the quassia of the druggists. 
Closely related to it is the Gumbo 
limbo (Bursera simaruba), one of the 
most striking objects in our native for¬ 
ests. It becomes a large and lofty tree, 
with massive crooked limbs and glossy 
trifoliate leaves. The entire bark is 
smooth, peeling off in thin papery layers, 
and is generally a rich reddish-brown or 
copper color, though occasionally it is 
silvery. It is one of the first trees to 
attract the attention of the visitor to 
this region. It furnishes the gum elemi 
of the druggist. Large limbs may be 
set in the ground where they will root 
and produce trees. 
The well-known mahogany (Swiet- 
enia matrogani) grows abundantly on 
most of the Lower Keys and the extreme 
southern end of the peninsula, where it 
occasionally forms a crooked, widely 
branched tree 40 or 50 feet high and 
two feet or more in diameter. It is a 
handsome ornamental tree when young, 
its large round seed-pods being quite 
striking. It flourishes in all soils, from 
low salty marsh to high pine land. 
Drypetes lateriflora, the Guiana Plum, 
is a tree of our hammocks, with shining, 
long-elliptic, pointed leaves, and when 
covered with its rich red velvety fruit, 
a third of an inch in diameter, is a very 
attractive object. 
Sapindus saponaria, or Soapberry 
Tree, is found occasionally in our ham¬ 
mocks. It has fine, large pinnate leaves, 
the petioles being winged, and it bears 
in spring or summer globular, yellow 
fruits three-quarters of an inch in diam¬ 
eter. It is quite a pretty small tree, and 
the berries make a good substitute for 
soap. 
One of the handsomest small trees or 
large shrubs I know of is Hibiscus tili- 
aceus, which is quite generally distrib¬ 
uted along beaches throughout the 
tropics. It has large, glossy, leathery, 
cordate leaves and immense yellow 
flowers with a dark center. It is one 
of the few native trees which can readily 
be reproduced from cuttings, as nearly 
all of the others must be grown from seed. 
It is found sparingly on the coast of 
Dade County, growing in low land near 
the sea. Another allied species has 
lighter-colored, thinner leaves and similar 
flowers, and is not given in our botanies. 
Both grow in muddy ground near the 
sea and do well on high land. 
A closely related tree is Thespesia 
populnea, occasionally called Headache 
Tree. It is widely distributed along sea¬ 
shores in the tropics, and grows wild 
in Lower Florida. It has smaller leaves 
and flowers than Hibiscus tiliaceus, the 
latter slightly tinged with red and turn¬ 
ing darker with age. 
Almost everywhere in and around 
hammocks the Wild Pawpaw (Carica 
papaya) is found growing, and it is a 
most striking and tropical looking tree. 
It usually has a stout, unbranched stem 
16 to 18 feet high when well grown, and 
is crowned with immense palmate 
leaves. The tree is supposed to be 
dioecious, the male flowers, which are 
light yellow, being borne on long, pendu¬ 
lous stalks on one tree and the larger, 
sessile female flowers on another. The 
fruits, which in cultivation are often as 
large as a musk melon, are closely clus¬ 
tered among the under leaves and are 
edible—for those who like them, a good 
