14 
PLANTS OF DADE COUNTY, FLORIDi\ 
One of our wild grapes with small 
glossy leaves (Muscadinia rotundifolia) 
grows in the edges of hammocks and 
comes up from seed in the cultivated 
pine land to an extent that is anything 
but agreeable. It is a rampant grower, 
and when it hangs over the edges of 
the hammocks it looks well. One of 
these vines has covered a solitary live 
oak in my grounds and hangs in long 
streamers all around it and looks like 
an uncommonly fine white elm. 
Rhabdadenia biflora is a wonderfully 
vigorous vine that grows in salt 
marshes, either sprawling or climbing 
often to the tops of lofty trees. Its 
flexible, woody stems are smooth and 
brown; it has elongated, thick, glossy,' 
opposite leaves, and handsome, creamy- 
white, funnel-shaped flowers in pairs. 
The center of the waxy flower is yel¬ 
low, and it is richly fragrant. It is full 
of milky sap, and it is predicted that it 
will be an important rubber-producing 
plant in the near future. I have no 
doubt that it would grow on higher 
ground if it was well cared for. 
Vanilla planifolia, the plant producing 
the vanilla of commerce, has been cred¬ 
ited to South Florida, erroneously, I 
think. We have a species growing here 
in the hammocks (Vanilla eggersi) 
which has large, fleshy stems and the 
leaves reduced to mere scales, which 
climbs trees by means of adventive roots. 
It bears great heads of brownish-purple 
flowers, which are fragrant and hand¬ 
some. It is an odd and attractive plant. 
native herbaceous ornamentals. 
In the tropics the proportion of her¬ 
baceous plants is less than in cooler 
regions. In Dade County there are quite 
a number of attractive ferns, several of 
these having been found recently for the 
first time in Florida by botanists explor¬ 
ing in the Homestead region. 
Osmunda spectabilis, a noble, yet deli¬ 
cate fern, is abundant in swamps, and is 
believed by some authorities to be the 
same as the Osmunda regalis of Europe. 
Our largest native fern grows every¬ 
where in brackish swamps (Acrosti- 
chum excelsum), and sometimes reaches 
a height of 8 feet or more. It is a bold, 
handsome plant, with, heavy stipes on 
which the fronds are pinnately arranged. 
It is a question in my mind whether it 
does not run into A. aureum, which is 
generally believed to be distinct. 
In the hammocks everywhere the 
trunks of the live oaks are more or less 
covered with a lovely little fern with 
creeping rootstalks and pectinate fronds 
(Polypodium polypodioides). In dry 
weather its fronds curl up and turn 
brown and become so brittle that they 
easily break up. With one-fourth of an 
inch of rain or even less they open out, 
turn to a rich dark green, and cheerfully 
grow on as though nothing had checked 
them, only to close up and become brown 
when it turns dry again. 
With something of the same epiphytal 
habit its near relative (P. pectinatum) is 
even more beautiful, but is a much rarer 
species. Mr. John Soar and the writer 
found it on Pumpkin Key growing on 
dead logs or the ground, and I have at¬ 
tached it to trees in my hammock, where 
its lovely fronds, cut into teeth like a 
comb, open or close up and turn brown, 
according as the weather is damp or dry. 
The Hound’s Tongue Eern also grows, 
for the most part, on decaying wood in 
the hammocks. Ii was formally called 
a Polypodium, but is now Campylone- 
uron phyllitidis. It has lovely, entire 
linear fronds, reaching a height of three 
feet, and is a striking plant whether hid¬ 
den away in the half twilight of the ham¬ 
mocks or grown in pots or vases. 
Another rather rare fern, which re¬ 
sembles the last but has wider fronds, is 
Asplenium serratum, the edges of the 
fronds being finely serrated. The latter, 
though, occasionally grows to a consid¬ 
erable distance up tree trunks in damp 
hammocks. 
Phlebodium aureum is entirely epiphy¬ 
tal in its habits, growing mostly on the 
trunks of cabbage palmettos, where it 
forms knotty rootstalks and throws out 
its bold, large, deeply-cut fronds. 
Nephrolepis exaltata, the Sword Eern, 
is equally at home in the ground of ham¬ 
mocks, on rocks, or high up under the 
