SEMITROPICAL GARDENING. 113 



bamboos, with their wonderful variety in size and form; the eucalypti, 

 with their towering altitudes and varied hues of foliage and bark and 

 bloom. Think of the acacias, some of them favorites in the northern 

 greenhouses, but which carry huge loads of golden and fragrant bloom 

 to a height of forty feet in twenty years in California. Think of the 

 splendid magnolias of the south ; the Grevillias and tree ferns of Aus- 

 tralia, which throw out their graceful foliage in full confidence under 

 the semitropical sky. And then recall the imperial citrus family, with 

 foliage of emerald and fruit of gold. What of beauty, fragrance, and 

 deliciousness of fruit the name suggests even to northern minds ! But 

 it is idle to attempt to enumerate even the classes of plants which con- 

 tribute to the diversity and beauty, and enter into the distinctive char- 

 acter, of the semitropical garden. If you take all the foliage, flowering, 

 and fruiting plants which are grown in ordinary greenhouse tempera- 

 tures at the north, all the plants of the window garden, and nine-tenths 

 of the plants which thrive in the open air in the northern garden and 

 orchard, and weave them into an open-air scene, you can obtain some 

 conception of the resources of the semitropical gardener. 



It follows, then, naturally that the semitropical garden is an abode 

 of supreme delight to those who enjoy "an art which does mend nature/' 

 As practised in the semitropics, it is an art which appeals irresistibly 

 to all people. Xewcomers in whom no horticultural fervor has ever 

 been awakened in their native northern regions become charmed with 

 the new scenes, and enthusiastic in their personal effort and free invest- 

 ments. The one who has always cherished garden love is overwhelmed 

 and entranced by the new possibilities and opportunities which surround 

 him. Women who have in their northern homes given mild devotion 

 to plants, mainly as tasteful decorative affairs, become enraptured with 

 the brilliance and fragrance of the semitropical garden, and bring new 

 luster to their eyes and bloom to their cheeks and new purpose to their 

 lives, through their devotion to the semitropical flora. 



Semitropical gardening in the United States is just at the beginning 

 of its popularity and development. The splendid plants in the old 

 gardens ait the south and the legacies left by the padres in the old mis- 

 sions of California are but suggestions of the future. Naturally, com- 

 mercial horticulture has first laid hold upon the semitropical resources 

 of the country, and has demonstrated that American energy and acumen 

 are not dulled by escape from the touch of frost. Ornamental horti- 

 culture, here as everywhere, will follow with garlands for the indus- 

 trial victors. As it is a new art for any English-speaking people, one of 

 its greatest needs at the present time is aid and guidance in knowledge 

 of semitropical plants and what to do with them. Gardening treatises 

 in the English language treat of northern practises; even the semi- 



