52 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 
A native elderberry, Sambucus intermedia, grows in the wettest 
swamps, fresh or salt and is very ornamental,—it produces its 
large heads of snowy flowers in great abundance. Quite a num- 
ber of bamboos do finely in wet ground, among them Arundo 
donax, Bambusa disticha, B. argentea and the common giant 
bamboo, B. vulgaris, a glorious plant. 
Many of the aquatics will grow in slightly brackish water and 
fine effects may be produced by introducing these into artificial 
pools. Our native Acrostichums are among the noblest of ferns 
and they produce a fine effect when planted along the borders of 
ponds or lakes. Osmunda spectabtlis and Blechnum serrulatum 
grow in very wet, brackish soil and are fine; Nephrolepis biser- 
rata and N. exaltata, our native sword ferns, occupy all habitations 
from the tops of trees to slightly brackish swamps. 
The following plants in addition to those mentioned above do 
well in Florida swamps and low lands, all of them in slightly 
brackish soil. Ficus aurea, F. brevifolia, Melaleuca leucadendron 
or Cajeput tree, Delonix regia in soil not too wet, Pandanus 
veitchi, P. sanderiana, P. baptisti, and P. candelabrum, Ravenala 
madagascariensis. Nipa fruiticans, a magnificent palm from the 
East Indies flourishes in the wettest, most brackish situations. 
The Strelitzias, Alpinias, Cordia sebestina, Hamelia patens, H1bis- 
cus rosa-sinensis and H. mutabilis, the Oleanders and Rhodomyrtus 
tomentosa are also useful in this connection. 
It will be seen from the above list and from what has been 
said that a great variety of attractive vegetation may be made to 
grow in low and swampy places, that a considerable area of 
Florida which has not only been considered worthless but even 
a nuisance can, with a limited amount of labor and intelligence, 
without the trouble of draining, be made into an earthly para- 
dise. On the trees in such grounds many of the most lovely 
Orchids and epiphytes will succeed; Philodendrons and other 
aroid vines as well as many different climbers, can be made tocover 
the trees. I am confidently looking forward to a time when my 
pestiferous swamp, which in places was a miry bog, will be the 
most charming spot on all my place, when instead of a waste of 
weeds and sawgrass it will be filled with the beauty and fragrance 
of ornamental plants and flowers. 
