INTRODUCTION xill 
man’s playground, a land of attractive winter homes for people 
in moderate circumstances and a refuge for thousands who are 
suffering from various ills of the flesh. I can look forward with 
full confidence to a time in the near future when a large area 
within the territory covered in this work will be girdled with the 
finest of roads bordered with beautiful tropical and semi-tropical 
shade trees; I can see the land filled with happy homes shaded 
and embowered with the glorious vegetation of the equatorial 
regions, a land of peace and contentment, a land of hope, of rest 
for the weary, aland of perennial verdure and fadeless beauty. 
