. Contributions from the New York Botanical Garden. Plants. A BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO THE BIG CYPRESS 49! We drove into a small hammock within half a mile of the slough and prepared to camp there for the night. Many interest- ing plants were collected on the prairies near the slough before darkness drove us back to camp. Indian plantains (Mesa- denia), foxgloves (Agalinis), and helio- tropes (Heliotropium) grew nearly every- where. Fully as interesting as the native plants was the climbing black-eyed Susan (Thunbergia alata), which we found ex- tensively naturalized on the prairie near the Okal
. Contributions from the New York Botanical Garden. Plants. A BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO THE BIG CYPRESS 49! We drove into a small hammock within half a mile of the slough and prepared to camp there for the night. Many interest- ing plants were collected on the prairies near the slough before darkness drove us back to camp. Indian plantains (Mesa- denia), foxgloves (Agalinis), and helio- tropes (Heliotropium) grew nearly every- where. Fully as interesting as the native plants was the climbing black-eyed Susan (Thunbergia alata), which we found ex- tensively naturalized on the prairie near the Okaloacoochee. The plants now growing there may be the descendants of specimens introduced and cultivated in gardens the Seminoles maintained there fully a century ago. The following morning we broke camp about daybreak and proceeded to cross the slough. We parked our cars in its midst on the very spot where, it is said, more than sixty years ago Lieutenant Harsuff's com- pany of engineers had their sanguinary clash with Chief Billy Bowlegs—after they had destroyed the old chief's garden just to "see old Billy cut ; The larger trees of this hammock con- sist of the bald cypress or river cypress (Taxodium distichum). It was a favorite spot for the Indians to obtain logs for mak- ing their dugout canoes. In the rainy sea- son there is commonly about six feet of water in the slough. After the rainy season the water table is naturally lowered by seepage. The waters, evidently, find their way directly into the Everglade basin, and directly or indirectly into the Gulf of Mexico. In the dry season most of the slough can be traversed on foot. It was the custom of the Indians to go to the slough in the dry season, cut down the trees they selected for making the canoes, and then wait for the wet season and high water to float the logs out toward the western coast. We went down the slough afoot just as the thousands of birds in the rookery were awakening. The birds mostly repre
Size: 920px × 2718px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectplants, bookyear1899
