2 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 



as there is comparatively little hammock in the state. It is 

 getting to be the fashion nowadays, and a good fashion it is, to 

 leave standing all the clean, healthy pine trees. They shade 

 the ground to some extent and furnish some shelter, and they 

 blend fairly well with the planted vegetation. They do not 

 rob the ground of fertility to any great extent, and they relieve 

 the place from the dreadful appearance of bleakness and naked- 

 ness it would have if everything was cut away. I consider it an 

 excellent idea to preserve the young pines and a goodly number 

 of the scrub palmettos. They furnish an admirable shelter for 

 the young and tender plants which the home builder puts out. 

 They break the force of winds, they are some protection from 

 frost and if the little things are frostbitten they keep the sun 

 from striking them early in the morning, at the time when its 

 effects are deadly. The saw palmetto grows over almost the 

 whole state, and from middle Florida southward a dwarf cabbage 

 palmetto is mixed with it. In the Biscayne Bay region there 

 flourishes, especially on the rocky ridges, a lovely small silver 

 palm (Coccothrinax garberi). In many places in the northern half 

 of the state is found a dwarf Sabal (S. adansoni) and the beau- 

 tiful Porcupine Palm (Rhapidophyllum hystrix). All of these 

 will flourish when the thick scrub is cleared away from about 

 them, even without fertilizer, and if given a little care they all 

 make fine ornamentals. Any of them can easily be cleared away 

 at any time when the planted vegetation has attained some size. 



In the northern part of the state the hammocks consist of 

 live oak and one or more other oaks, hickory, red bay, liquid- 

 ambar, cabbage palmettos and a few other species of trees and 

 shrubs. In a few places some of the more northern vegetation 

 is found such as elms, maples, walnuts and the like. As we go 

 southward most of these drop out and are replaced by a great 

 variety of tropical trees, so that by the time the extreme southern 

 end of the mainland and lower keys is reached practically every- 

 thing belongs to the torrid zone, the species being almost without 

 exception those which have their metropolis in the West Indies 

 and the Spanish Main. 



No word picture can give the faintest idea of the bewildering 

 beauty of many of these hammocks, especially those of the 



