84 ORNAMENTAL GARDENING 



I want to lift up my voice and plead for the hammocks. Like 

 the wild game they are disappearing fast before the destroyer, 

 man. It is only a question of time, and little time at that, when, 

 at the rate they are being wiped out now the last of them will be 

 gone. Along the shores of Biscayne Bay and on the nearby 

 keys there are over one hundred species of tropical trees which 

 are found growing wild nowhere else in the United States. It 

 seems to me that it is almost a crime to exterminate these rare 

 and beautiful things. Just within the boundaries of Miami and 

 to the south of it there was, probably, the finest body of tropical 

 hammock within the state and it ought to have been preserved 

 for a park and arboretum but it is rapidly being destroyed and 

 turned into building lots. 



If you have a bit of hammock on your premises save it; if you 

 have already cut it down it may be that it would grow up again 

 if it was not disturbed. Don't thin out the trees or in any way 

 trim it up, for nature has made it more interesting and beautiful 

 than it is possible for you to do. 



