FLORICULTURE IX SAX DIEGO. 131 



roses beneath glass, ferneries, and palm-houses, fields for spring bulbs 

 and flowering shrubs. All degrees and conditions of climate necessary 

 can be found within this short distance for growing as good flowers 

 as are found throughout central California. 



Then there can be shipped to San Diego flowers of excellent qual- 

 ity, in perfect condition, in an hour or two; while Arizona, New Mex- 

 ico, and- western Texas will always be excellent customers, for we can 

 do better by them than Los Angeles is doing now. San Diego growers 

 will become expert shippers, and just as the packing of the fruit of 

 southern California is now so important a question to her commerce, 

 San Diego will not be the last station along the line, but will be a 

 main depot for supplies along a very prosperous highway, and at some 

 floral congress five years hence (and I hope less) some one can praise 

 the quality as well as the variety of the floral products. 



There is a sweet recompense and a feast for eyes even to-day in 

 our little sunshiny city. There the graceful cocoa palms in variety 

 can wave their fringed leaves forty feet on high. The beautiful and 

 stately-growing palm Kentia Fosteriana will in ten years be fifty feet 

 high, and always in blossom and ripening fruit continually. Our 

 Christinas windows can be filled with the blazing poinsettia as easily 

 as yours can be filled with marguerites and oak branches. The glorious 

 terra cotta Bougainvillea climbs to our house-tops on a *outh side in 

 three to five years with a blaze of color that can never be developed on 

 a plant under glass, and continues full of bloom the winter through, 

 and then is again ablaze in spring and summer. 



The rich and luxuriant blooming Bignonia venusta festoons itself 

 from fence-top to tree-top, from shed-top to housetop, all during the 

 months from December to March. 



Quisqualis indica, a petted vine of the Golden Gate conservatory, 

 thrives and blooms during the summer in a favored spot to the east. 

 Cacti in all their glory of spine and flower can be cultivated success- 

 fully apart from the alkali sands and barren lands and heat of Arizona 

 and Mexico, and the carnation develops with care to almost the per- 

 fection of your house-grown flowers on the very shores of the Pacific. 

 San Diego is a place of exceptional opportunities that for the time has 

 but very slowly developed, but she can show you specimens that will 

 win your hearts and make them glad and keep you forever her friend 

 if you will but come and see her. 



San Diego, Col. 



