II 



SPANISH GARDENS OF THE SEMI- 

 TROPICS 



IT seems almost prophetic that the land which was 

 the scene of the earliest attempts at gardening 

 made by the white race on the western side of the At- 

 lantic, should have been named "flowery" by its dis- 

 coverer long before. This has a pleasant and alluring 

 sound, conjuring a picture of fair delights, of sunlight 

 and fragrance, and never a hint of a work-a-day world. 

 Wherein is the prophecy; for the gardens which came 

 indolently into existence beside the early Spanish 

 dwellings were gardens of sunlight aruL fragrance, of 

 fair delight veiling what of the work-a-day and prac- 

 tical was there which was never a deal, at that. 



This much we are sure of because as late as 1712, 

 almost a century and a half after the establishment of 

 the settlement of St. Augustine, the failure of the usual 

 supply vessels, which came annually from Spain or 

 from the Spanish base in the West Indies reduced 

 the settlers to such absolute famine that they spent the 



14 



