Florida trails as seen from Jacksonville to Key West and from November to April inclusivePackard, Winthrop
History
Florida trails as seen from Jacksonville to Key West and from November to April inclusive
Packard, Winthrop
Florida -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Florida
Along with the path-haunting utricularias is another tiny plant whose
Northern prototype is familiar. This is the sundew. I take the one that
carpets portions of these moist, wild ways with rich red to be the
_Drosera brevifolia_ from its shorter, wedge-shaped leaves. The nap of
fine glands that clothes these holds diamond glints of infinitesimal
dewdrops that flash finely in the sun and catch my attention and hold
it, even as they do the tiny insects for whom the snare is spread. In
favored locations these round mats of the sundew half carpet the
gray-black soil along the path edges with a diamond-frosted, cerise
velvet and should pleasantly pad the footfall of all small, wild
creatures that pass that way.
The sundew grows only on the moist places. In the dryer spots, now that
spring has come wooing with warmth and with showers, troops of
sunbonneted beauties show up, these seeming to have sprung magically
forth in a night. It may be that there were golden yellow sunbonnets
nodding coquettishly in the wind all along the savannas ten days ago. I
can only say that I tramped them back and forth and did not see any. It
may be that the smaller, more modest blue sunbonnets were there too. I
can only say that I did not see them. There is a freemasonry of the wild
that keeps secrets from you till you are found worthy. Hence to know a
wood or a plain you must visit it often. Often in coming back along a
path which I have scanned in going I find flowers, nodding by the very
path brim, that I did not see in going out. It is not to be believed
that these opened in the interval; rather we must
[Illustration: “All must know when spring comes, whether in the
Everglades or the New England pastures”]
think that like children they lose their fear of strangers after a
little.
So with these butterwort girls that wear the yellow and blue sunbonnets.
I fancy there were a few of them along the path on my first day, but
they did not care to be seen. Now they have taken heart at the boldness
with which spring scatters love tokens all about and are trooping forth
on the level sands. _Pinguicula pumila_ I actually found first, though
she is the more modest. Her blue bonnet is smaller and she herself is
shorter of stature, nestling down among the wild grasses in a snugly
confiding way which makes them love her. They cling close and it is
difficult to pluck _Pinguicula pumila_ without getting a half handful of
defending grass stems with her.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account