For a number of years it had been my great desire to make a trip to the tropics, and see for myself some of the beauties of tropical verdure. Not until the fall of 1919 was this privilege given me. Two years before I had tried for a passport, but as the war was on, and as all ablebodied men were needed at home, it was refused me. But in October, 1919, I succeeded in getting Lansing's signature to the necessary papers. Early on the morning of the 26th I left Mobile on the L. &. N. for Jacksonville, Florida. All day long we traveled over the sandy stretches of the Gulf slope, now and then running through scattered pine forests. Often near streams we would see groves of live oaks festooned with Florida moss hanging from the limbs. Reaching Jacksonville about ten o'clock in the evening, and having only ten minutes to spare, I soon boarded the East Coast Line passenger which was to carry me to Key West. All night we sped on and when morning came we were well down the Florida coast nearing West Palm Beach. At West Palm Beach along the railroad tracks I saw several ferns which apparently were Pteridium caudatum, Pteris longifolia, Blechnum occidentale, and Tectaria trifoliata. As we traveled farther south where the pines gave way to palms, the trees were often covered with epiphytic ferns. The scenery was now beautiful, orange orchards heavily laden with fruit, bordered with groves of palms. Occasionally we would get glimpses of the Atlantic on the east, but often we would travel over sandy wastes or the swampy land of the everglades. From the mainland to Key West, a distance of 120 miles, is one of the most remarkable railroads in the 46