IN FLORIDA. oI 
beauty. Just a bit to the eastward and at some little distance 
a lofty water tower in an adjoining place, its roof made of red 
tiles, is a striking object as seen above the forest. To the south- 
east and just across the lawn a giant East Indian bamboo stands 
close against the hammock and throws its great, feathery plumes 
far above it. It is so still that not a leaf on it is stirring and the 
whole shows with marvellous effect against the brightening sky. 
To the left is an opening cut through the hammock, giving a 
vista across Biscayne Bay and the low, mangrove covered shore 
beyond. This openingis nearly east of the house and three or four 
times a year the moon rises through it after dark, with an effect, as 
it weirdly lights up the waters of the bay, which is absolutely inde- 
scribable. Farther east, almost between me and the spot where 
the sun will rise, is awonderful tree, a young Myrobalan of the East 
Indies. It reaches well above the general outline of the forest and 
its long, wand-like branches are well clothed with the most won- 
derfully delicate, slender, pinnate foliage. These leaves are pale 
green below, sometimes almost silvery, and dark green above and 
among the mass of them all the intermediate tints are shown. 
The whole is as delicate and graceful as a bamboo but it is unlike 
any bamboo I ever saw. 
To the northeast is a solid stemmed Oriental bamboo some 
thirty feet high which is beginning to rise above the general line 
of the hammock. The name of this splendid plant is in dispute 
but the species has been sent out as Dendrocalamus strictus and 
it will reach a height of fifty feet and even more. Its large stems 
are crooked at the ground and curve strongly outward until at 
their ends they are horizontal; their foliage is almost massive, 
yet it is wonderfully graceful. I never see these immense plumes 
outlined against the sky but I am reminded of some of the gigan- 
tic ferns of the Carboniferous Age. 
Around the lawn and in the near foreground a Century plant 
sends up its great flower stem with candelabra-like branches, just 
now in full bloom, making a most striking figure against the sky. 
Near it is a group of palms, a Cuban royal and one from Porto 
Rico, an African Oil Palm, two species of California Fan palms, a 
Chamerops from South Europe, the Wine Palm of India (Arenga 
saccharifera), and an immense-leaved Sabal from South America. 
