THE PLANT WORLD 139 



of the " paradise." Through vistas of young oaks and pines patches of 

 glowing red color are visible. The " paradise " is enclosed by the wood- 

 lands and consists of groups of palms, magnolias, camphor trees, masses 

 of Elaeagmis reflexa, young pines, a sweet myrtle fifteen feet high, star 

 anise bushes, and tangled masses of honeysuckle and Carolina jessamine. 

 Garlands of smilax and grape-vines ( Vitis cordifolia) festooning the pines 

 add considerably to the picturesqueness of the scene. Groups and large 

 specimens of the native Yucca aloifolia and Yucca Treculeana, from 

 Texas, form a very ornamental background. On the west side a group of 

 Florida cedars, grown from seed which I gathered in the fall of 1895 in 

 St. Augustine, and now about eight to ten feet high, was planted for the 

 accommodation of the beautiful red cardinals. These birds, as well as 

 mocking-birds, find excellent hiding and nesting places among these dense 

 evergreens. This place, lying deeper than the surrounding woodland, 

 has a rich, moist soil. Large beds under the shade of young spreading 

 pines show masses of gorgeous lily-like umbels of flowers on stems about 

 two feet high. Usually four widely-open, short-tubed flowers are carried 

 on a scape, each individual flower measuring from seven to eleven inches 

 in diameter. They are of noble form and unrivalled beauty. More than 

 a thousand bulbs are planted together. The flowers vary from an almost 

 pure white or a delicate rosy and creamy white, lined or veined and suf- 

 fused with crimson, to a deep glowing red. The fiery orange and scarlet 

 varieties predominate ; the light ones are rare. The red color, relieved 

 by pure white bands on the segments, appears as if sprinkled with gold- 

 dust — an exceedingly dazzling hue when the rays of the sun strike the 

 flowers. I do not know another flower so gorgeously beautiful, of 

 such brilliancy, and so refined and grand as these amaryllises. Many 

 hybrids, especially the light-colored ones, have a very spicy fragrance. 

 All of them were obtained by cross-fertilization in my greenhouse at 

 Milwaukee after experimenting for years with the best European hybrids 

 and the true species from the American tropics. 



After having made our way through a labyrinth of evergreen shrubs, 

 tangling masses of smilax and other creepers and tall ferns, the path leads 

 to the slat-house on the edge of the lake, where fancy-leaved caladiums 

 and thousands of seedling amaryllis are planted out in rows. Many of 

 these seedlings are now in bloom. The most distinct and beautiful ones 

 are provided with names and labelled. In the garden near the house 

 large clumps of the orange-scarlet Hippeastruin (amaryllis) equestre and 

 H. Johnsoni are in full bloom, each clump pushing up from ten to thirty 

 and more flower-scapes. The H. equestre always bears two flowers on 

 a scape, while the H . Johnsoni carries from four to six and even seven in 

 an umbel. Such masses are gorgeous beyond description. Here we also 

 find large clumps of the white Crinum asiaticufn, sinicum (the St. John's 



