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tantly related to the sapodilla. We have a fruit called the 

 mamee sapota, but this also is a very distant relative to the 

 sapodilla. Why not call the alligator pear, the avocado, and 

 the sapodilla the zapote ? 



The one great problem next to the railroad construction to 

 Key West which is now being ardently discussed, is the drain- 

 age of that vast territory called the Everglades. It is the pet 

 project of the present Governor. Already work has begun. 

 Some day it will be one great patch of vegetables and cane. Our 

 representative in Congress has asked to have three million dol- 

 lars diverted from the irrigation fund for the drainage of the 

 federal land in the Everglades. Of the progress of this pro- 

 ject I will write more in another letter. 



How accidentally strange foreign plants get introduced by the 

 greatest of all factors in plant introduction — the hand of man 

 through the help of the mails. How indirectly too these often 

 pass from friend to friend. One of my neighbors says, "now 

 here is a cherimoyer, it is unlike all other cherimoyers in this 

 district. A friend sent the seed by mail from Callao, South 

 America." Another says, ''this mango is different from any I 

 have seen before, a missionary friend sent it from a remote sec- 

 tion of India." Only this morning a friend called and said, "I 

 have two strange trees on my place. They are now in bloom. 

 They were there when I purchased the property. I have no 

 idea what they are." A botanical study of the flower soon re- 

 vealed that the tree was none other than Kigelia africana, the 

 sausage-tree of Equatorial Africa. 



I don't know whether you have it or not in Hawaii. I sent 

 some seeds to your forestry department last year, but the Florida 

 madeira, which is the true mahogany, is worthy of extensive 

 planting. On our Keys it grows on coral rocks close to the sea, 

 so close in fact that it must get salted at times. It grows in the 

 rock with little soil, stands strong winds and yields the king of 

 all woods. In spite of the fact that our boatmen are constantly 

 cutting it for boat frames, cleats, etc., it is still quite abundant. 

 In addition to being so useful and universally known, it is high- 

 ly ornamental. Another tree which I saw in Porto Rico which 

 pleased me because of the value of its wood and the beauty of 

 its foliage and flowers is the inaga (Thespesia grandiflora) . 

 Like the mahogany, it grows close to the sea on coral rock. I 

 have tried in vain to get seeds of this valuable tree. 



