INTRODUCTION. 



In the Proceedings of the Florida Horticultural Society for 

 1912 there was published a paper by the writer entitled "Orna- 

 mental Plants of Dade County, Florida," giving some account 

 of the native and exotic plants of the region which it covered. 

 On account of the fact that no separates of this were printed an 

 illustrated edition was published later which met with consid- 

 erable favor from plant growers and lovers in general. The 

 suggestion has frequently been made to the author that he write 

 something more extended and the following pages are the result. 



Florida, especially the southern part of it, is really so new that 

 we know but little as to what we can or can not do in the matter 

 of growing ornamental plants, or making and decorating homes 

 within its borders. The writer has had over thirteen years of 

 experience in cultivating plants in Dade County and four in 

 Manatee County and yet he feels that he is not competent to 

 teach. Many things that he once supposed he had learned he 

 has later been compelled to unlearn, and every day new problems 

 are coming up which must be solved, problems for which the 

 books on gardening give no help whatever. This little work is 

 written, then, more as a set of suggestions than of instructions. 

 I said in my paper on Dade County plants that it was a sort of 

 first aid, and the same remark may be applied to this. 



We can scarcely form the faintest conception of the enormous 

 number of useful and ornamental trees and plants from the 

 warmer parts of the world which will grow within the limits of 

 this state. The veteran botanist and explorer, Richard Spruce, 

 who spent fifteen years in the equatorial regions of South America 

 in search for new plants (1849-1864) in a letter to George Ben- 

 tham says: "I have lately been calculating the number of 

 species that yet remain to be discovered in the great Amazonian 

 forest, from the cataracts of the Orinoco to the mountains of 

 Matto Grosso; taking the fact that by moving away a degree of 

 latitude or longitude I found about half the plants different as a 

 basis, and considering what very narrow strips we have up to 



