60 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 



greater part of the year, falling in the spring when the new foliage 

 almost pushes off the old. It has not seeded very well here but 

 seed could be imported in abundance. Its broad whitish pods 

 are, however, one of its attractive features. 



The Indian Laurel, Ficus nitida, is not a laurel at all nor any 

 kin thereto, but one of the figs. It has rather small glossy, thick 

 leaves and forms an immense, rounded head of intensely deep 

 green foliage. It has been used in Key West for a street tree with 

 success and is a great favorite for roads in Cuba and many parts 

 of the Orient. It stands hurricanes pretty well and holds its 

 leaves all the year. It may be propagated from seed or by slitting 

 and balling the limbs with sphagnum, or it can be grown from cut- 

 tings. Another fig, Ficus religiosa, the Sacred Ti, Bo or Pipal 

 Tree of the Hindus, everywhere held sacred in India, will probably 

 make a fairly good road tree. It is a rapid grower, with thick, 

 shining, heart shaped leaves which are drawn out to a long point, 

 and it has a fine rounded head. It is used in Havana as a shade 

 tree on the beautiful Prado and stands hurricanes fairly well. 



The Circassian Bean (Adenanthera pavonina) is a handsome, 

 spreading tree with delicate, compound leaves and spikes of 

 brownish flowers and spiral pods with brilliant red beans. I have 

 a fine tree some twenty feet high which stands winds well and is 

 a fairly rapid grower. There is another tree in my grounds which 

 I am watching with great interest the Myrobalan (Phyllanthus 

 emblica), which is without doubt one of the loveliest trees, so far 

 as growth and foliage are concerned, that I have ever seen. It 

 has long, wand-like shoots, slender, delicate pinnate leaves and in 

 appearance resembles, to some extent, a bamboo. It is called a 

 large shrub or small tree in the books, but my specimen is twenty- 

 five feet high and has a trunk diameter of over a foot, the result 

 of some six years growth; De Candolle says it becomes a large 

 tree. It would have to be propagated from foreign grown seed 

 until it could be got into bearing here. It is grown as far north 

 as Japan but Reasoner reports that it is not quite hardy at 

 Oneco. 



The mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni) is a native of the Florida 

 keys and the extreme lower mainland of the state, growing in 

 almost any kind of land from swamp to high hammock. Where 



