The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1918-12-13

AncAsS MASSES OF air plants and ferns.
Here, too, are rare epiphytic orchids
that grow nowhere else in the United
States. A remarkable one found nm
palm trunks is practically leafless.
and the short Towering scape. borne
close to its densely clustered roots
Dears one or more singularly conspic.
uous flowers whose perianth divisions
arc from one to four inches ling and
the usual course of affairs. In fact
they completely turn the tables On
the smaller members Of the insect
world, which alto gether too common.
~ devour plants. Florida is especial.
~ rich, both in the number of these
lnsect-catching plants, and in the va.
rlety and interest of their peculiar
habits. Our butterworts, pitcher
plants, bladderworts and sundews are
all of them insectiverious, and all
these four groups of plants have de-
Veloped different ways Of securing
their victims. Brigands and highway
men Of the vegetable world they are.
setting their leaves as traps, and
spreading them as snares for the IN
wary, while blossoming most attarc.
lively in purple and gold Of these
insect-catching plants the beautiful
Dutterworts begin to bloom in jam
airy and February in the peninsula.
and are exceedingly abundant in low
pinelands, where their snowy yellow
and purple flowers, sway on slender
stems above rosettes of moist leaves
which securely glue down to their sur.
face any small inse@ that touches
them. Our small sundews, whose
giistening eddish leaves are furnish.
ed with sticky, tentacle-like stalked
glands, grow by hundreds in marshv
places Bladderworts are abundant in
shallow water, where they set little
ell-pOt traps by thousands for minute
water creatures. And our strikingI
pitcher plants. with their odd flow
ers, are locally common in low pine.
lands, where their handsome and ne
culiar tubular leaves are remarkabI
specialized as death-traps for crawl,
ing and flying insects
But botanizins in Florida is not
limited to the ground. Our MANY
air plants make the swamps and ham /
mocks Of south Florida fairyland Of
beauty. Fastening their strange
growth above the earth. on the trees
they successfully solve the high cos. |
Of living by making use Of a special
diet of atmospheric dust and air and
rain, and from this unique fare they
produce as brilliantly decked spikes
of bloom as any Of our earth growing
whose spur frequently attains the
extraordinary length Of half a foot.
The great diversity of soils in Flor
da. often within a limited area. is the
cause Of remarkable diversity in
Dur fora and as one passes in a short
walk from high pineland 10 low pine
and and swamp. or from sandy lake
'hore to marsh. each change il the
OF the soil presents a most
change in the variety of
Wild flowers found Although a few
plants are good mixers and are at
home in different locations, the major
ty thrive only in certain soils, and
within definite limits, and hence Va
ind in Florida many well-defne1
Plant associations, as they are call l.
d.
II this diversified country there are
tense grOwths Of evergreen. fragrant,
lowered bay trees; dry sandhiIs
'Aere pink thysanena and the velvet
eaYed blue lupine grow: low pine-
ants where delicate atamasco lilies
pring from the forest floor: ham
nOcks in which the great magnolia is
It home, swamps where cypress
knees take fantastic forms. and
who're crimson suikes Of air plants
lame from the tree trunks: streams,
llong whose banks white crinums
loom; ocean shores where adventur ,
'us flowers open on the sands; ,
marshes filled with a changing profu- :
ion of flowers, and lake borders cur ,
aimed with grape and smiax, where
White racemes Of Virginia willow ;
END over the water and ~uxy bells Of
etterbush blossom in rose and white
In the extreme south of Florida is
tue West Indian fora, entirely diff
csent from anything found elsewhere!
u the United States. Rare epiphytiol
'rceids and ferns are here, and many
'ther plants of extraordinary interest.
I is in this mart nj Erlors3o as,coat-fy,.t