22 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 
inland, may be called warm temperate, and the nights in winter 
are cool, so that a fire is needed to sit by in the evenings and 
sharp frosts are not uncommon. In the lower part of the state 
the temperature at sunrise, except during northers, is usually from 
60° to 70° with a midday temperature of from 70° to 78° and 
the native vegetation is largely tropical. As a general thing 
the plants of the tropics grow and flourish from year to year, 
only suffering when an occasional frost occurs. 
The greater part of the rainfall comes during the warm season. 
Heavy rains are likely to begin in the latter part of May and 
continue with more or less interruption until about the last of 
October. It must not be supposed that these so-called rainy 
seasons are periods of anything like continual rain. Showers 
sometimes fall every day for awhile; then there may be a number 
of rainless days and the showers vary from a few drops to a 
downpour of several inches. During the dry season there is an 
average of from two to three inches of rain a month and, as a 
rule, the fall is fairly well distributed throughout the year. 
This is conducive to vegetable growth as most of the precipitation 
occurs during the growing season, while during the period of 
plant rest enough falls to keep vegetation in good condition. 
The rainfall varies in different parts of the state from 40 inches 
on some of the lower keys to 65 in the upper part of the state. 
Hurricanes occur occasionally, usually from August to the 
end of October. They may visit any part of the state, lasting 
from a few hours to several days. It is possible for them to come 
at any season, though we feel practically safe from November first 
until the beginning of the rainy season. Sometimes they do little 
damage beyond breaking off limbs and switching young growth 
and leaves; at other times they are very destructive to buildings 
and vegetation. In some cases large trees are blown over and 
nearly all the leaves are stripped from the trees. If such a 
storm occurs before the first of October and the weather following 
is mild new leaves are likely to develop, but if a storm comes 
later than that the trees are most likely to go through the winter 
more or less naked. Ordinarily there is a very heavy rainfall 
during these storms but sometimes there is little or none. 
During such dry hurricanes a large amount of salt is carried 
