THE PLANT WORLD 99 



of oranges and mango trees. The broad prairies that lie between, now 

 filled with sedges and dotted with pink sabbatias and calopogons, will 

 ultimately all be planted with potatoes and tomatoes, and the pine-lands 

 with velvet beans and pineapples. Considering the distance they have 

 to transport their produce and the roughness of the roads, the present 

 settlers seem victims of misplaced confidence until we remember that the 

 spot where Miami now stands was in the same condition ten years ago ! 

 Several large tracts of land are alread}' in cultivation south of Cutler and 

 Perrine. In the words of Dr. Perrine, for whom the last station is 

 named, " the sterility of the soil is made up for bj^ the fertility of the 

 air." Dr. Perrine was certainly a victim of misplaced confidence, for he 

 was killed by the Indians during the Seminole war ! He had been given 

 a grant of land by Congress on condition that he should introduce new 

 plants into cultivation and establish a settler in each township. He did 

 introduce several plants of economic value — the cocoanut, banana, guava, 

 mango, grape- and breadfruit, mulberry, sisal and agave, besides many 

 ornamental plants, such as the royal poinciana, hibiscus, fiddle-flower, etc., 

 many of which have escaped from cultivation and still survive on the 

 abandoned sites of former homes of settlers massacred by the Seminoles. 

 Recently the patent rights have been granted by Congress to the descend- 

 ants of Dr. Perrine, and they have fulfilled the original conditions of the 

 grant and established in every township a settler who will devote himself 

 to raising tomatoes and shipping them to markets of our northern cities. 

 Thus do railroads make even the wilderness pay — but why can not we 

 buy pine kindlings in New York ? Elizabeth G. Britton. 



Editorial. 



The current issue of The Plant World reaches its readers at a 

 season when there is perhaps the least uniformity of climate in the va- 

 rious parts of our wide land. To the majority, dwellers in New England 

 and the Middle States, spring is just opening and unfolding its marvel- 

 ous possibilities of bud and blossom, of fruit and seed. The long, cold 

 winter with its lavish snowfall has at least prevented the damage that 

 comes from alternate freezing and thawing, and now that the spirit of 

 spring is upon us we may hope for an unusual wealth of those charming 

 early flowers which in this part of the country are the belles of the long 

 procession. But in our Southern States the trees will be in full leaf and 

 the bloom will suggest that of early summer. The pine barrens have 

 already brought forth their many floral treasures, and the thermometer, 



