2 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 
as there is comparatively little hammock in the state. It is 
getting to be the fashion nowadays, and a good fashion it is, to 
leave standing all the clean, healthy pine trees. They shade 
the ground to some extent and furnish some shelter, and they 
blend fairly well with the planted vegetation. They do not 
rob the ground of fertility to any great extent, and they relieve 
the place from the dreadful appearance of bleakness and naked- 
ness it would have if everything was cut away. I consider it an 
excellent idea to preserve the young pines and a goodly number 
of the scrub palmettos. They furnish an admirable shelter for 
the young and tender plants which the home builder puts out. 
They break the force of winds, they are some protection from 
frost and if the little things are frostbitten they keep the sun 
from striking them early in the morning, at the time when its 
effects are deadly. The saw palmetto grows over almost the 
whole state, and from middle Florida southward a dwarf cabbage 
palmetto is mixed with it. In the Biscayne Bay region there 
flourishes, especially on the rocky ridges, a lovely small silver 
palm (Coccothrinax garberi). In many places in the northern half 
of the state is found a dwarf Sabal (.S. adansont) and the beau- 
tiful Porcupine Palm (Rhapidophyllum hystrix). All of these 
will flourish when the thick scrub is cleared away from about 
them, even without fertilizer, and if given a little care they all 
make fine ornamentals. Any of them can easily be cleared away 
at any time when the planted vegetation has attained some size. 
In the northern part of the state the hammocks consist of 
live oak and one or more other oaks, hickory, red bay, liquid- 
ambar, cabbage palmettos and a few other species of trees and 
shrubs. In a few places some of the more northern vegetation 
is found such as elms, maples, walnuts and the like. As we go 
southward most of these drop out and are replaced by a great 
variety of tropical trees, so that by the time the extreme southern 
end of the mainland and lower keys is reached practically every- 
thing belongs to the torrid zone, the species being almost without 
exception those which have their metropolis in the West Indies 
and the Spanish Main. : 
No word picture can give the faintest idea of the bewildering 
beauty of many of these hammocks, especially those of the 
