IN FLORIDA 91 



beauty. Just a bit to the eastward and at some little distance 

 a lofty water tower in an adjoining place, its roof made of red 

 tiles, is a striking object as seen above the forest. To the south- 

 east and just across the lawn a giant East Indian bamboo stands 

 close against the hammock and throws its great, feathery plumes 

 far above it. It is so still that not a leaf on it is stirring and the 

 whole shows with marvellous effect against the brightening sky. 

 To the left is an opening cut through the hammock, giving a 

 vista across Biscayne Bay and the low, mangrove covered shore 

 beyond. This openingis nearly east of the house and three or four 

 times a year the moon rises through it after dark, with an effect, as 

 it weirdly lights up the waters of the bay, which is absolutely inde- 

 scribable. Farther east, almost between me and the spot where 

 the sun will rise, is a wonderful tree, a young Myrobalan of the East 

 Indies. It reaches well above the general outline of the forest and 

 its long, wand-like branches are well clothed with the most won- 

 derfully delicate, slender, pinnate foliage. These leaves are pale 

 green below, sometimes almost silvery, and dark green above and 

 among the mass of them all the intermediate tints are shown. 

 The whole is as delicate and graceful as a bamboo but it is unlike 

 any bamboo I ever saw. 



To the northeast is a solid stemmed Oriental bamboo some 

 thirty feet high which is beginning to rise above the general line 

 of the hammock. The name of this splendid plant is in dispute 

 but the species has been sent out as Dendrocalamus strictus and 

 it will reach a height of fifty feet and even more. Its large stems 

 are crooked at the ground and curve strongly outward until at 

 their ends they are horizontal; their foliage is almost massive, 

 yet it is wonderfully graceful. I never see these immense plumes 

 outlined against the sky but I am reminded of some of the gigan- 

 tic ferns of the Carboniferous Age. 



Around the lawn and in the near foreground a Century plant 

 sends up its great flower stem with candelabra-like branches, just 

 now in full bloom, making a most striking figure against the sky. 

 Near it is a group of palms, a Cuban royal and one from Porto 

 Rico, an African Oil Palm, two species of California Fan palms, a 

 Chamerops from South Europe, the Wine Palm of India (Arenga 

 saccharifera) , and an immense-leaved Sabal from South America. 



