16 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 
wide, encircling veranda or gallery as it is often called in South 
Florida and the West Indies, and the rather sharp roof which 
has never leaked seriously in the worst hurricane. Some of the 
ideas embodied in it have been taken from dwellings in Jamaica, 
Hawaii, Haiti, Cuba and the Philippines; others are my 
own, and it is not like anything in the heavens above, the earth 
beneath, or the waters under the earth. 
Nature is very kind in this land of warmth and sunshine, 
where every one plants trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants in 
their grounds and around their dwellings. Ina few brief years 
the growing vegetation covers up and hides the deformities and 
mistakes of the builder; trees screen it out and kindly vines 
most mercifully spread themselves over the architectural enor- 
mities that man has perpetrated, so that at length his short- 
comings and blunders are made a part of a thing of beauty and 
elegance. 
