128 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 
and it may be said here that you can’t have too many palms. 
They are so magnificent, so characteristic of the tropics, so strange 
and striking to northern eyes that it seems to me it is hard to 
overdo in planting them. Put them out singly, in groups, mix 
them with other vegetation, and in a few years they will grow 
into objects of wonderful beauty and stateliness, a perennial 
comfort to the heart, a joy to the eye, something to show with 
swelling pride to friends and visitors. 
ORNAMENTAL Exotic TREES. 
There is such a wealth of attractive material among exotic 
trees that are adapted to the soil and climate of Florida that it 
is hard to know what to choose and what to reject. I have over 
one hundred ‘species of ornamental tropical trees in my grounds 
without including palms and I have only a mere fraction of what 
may be grown. 
Acacia. A large genus of trees and shrubs mostly from Aus- 
tralia, having compound leaves (sometimes phyllodia) and cylin- 
drical or globular heads of flowers. I have tried a dozen or more 
species under various conditions and have met with almost total 
failure. A. neriifolia does fairly well. 
Adansonia digitata, Baobab Tree of Tropical Africa, reaches 
enormous dimensions, the trunks sometimes attaining a diameter 
of thirty feet, though the height of the tree rarely equals eighty. 
The wood is remarkably soft; the leaves of young trees are simple 
but those of larger ones are trifoliate, and at a later stage of 
growth digitate. The flowers are large and handsome; the fruit 
is the size of a small melon, and is edible. I have a small tree 
which grows very slowly; another in Miami has bloomed. 
Adenanthera pavonina, Circassian Bean, is an attractive tree 
with compound leaves and spikes of brownish flowers. These 
are followed by spiral pods containing brilliant scarlet, lenticular 
beans which are used in its native country, India, for food and 
for forming elegant necklaces. It is a rapid grower and is 
somewhat hardy. 
Ailanthus glandulosa, Tree of Heaven, is a very rapid grower 
from China, having immense pinnate leaves which have a decid- 
