262 A Horticulturist in Florida. 



of acres of the most fertile lands of the peninsula, and make the semi- 

 tropical wilderness fragrant with their bloom, and beautiful with their showy 

 but bitter fruit : and these wild groves are destined to furnish the basis of 

 one of our greatest industrial and commercial interests, and furnish a theme 

 for many a horticultural essay ; for the time is not distant when " The 

 American Journal of Horticulture," representing as it does all sections of 

 our great country, will report as fully and minutely the results of each sea- 

 son's operations among the orange-groves and banana-plantations of Flori- 

 da as it does now those of the peach-orchards of Delaware or the vineyards 

 of Lake Shore or Missouri. 



Of the fig, — a fruit Avorthy of its exalted place as one of the productions 

 of Eden, the companion of the golden citrus in the voyage from Spain, — 

 Florida is still the favorite home ; but, unlike the orange, it has not broken 

 away entirely from the restraints of cultivation to return to the wildness and 

 rudeness of Nature. 



It being my purpose to furnish from time to time brief notes, at least, of 

 my horticultural experience and observation in this semi-tropical region, it 

 seems necessary first to give my prospective readers a notion of the region 

 itself 



Florida — "the land of flowers" — is a singularly attractive country. 

 The unique character of its climate, its peculiar topography, and the beauty 

 and variety of its flora, impart to it an interest possessed by no other por- 

 tion of our country. To the geographer, the geologist, and the botanist, 

 alike, it is, as it were, a pleasant book with uncut leaves. 



The unique character of our State results from its position and configura- 

 tion. A narrow peninsula running down between two seas into the neigh- 

 borhood of the true tropical zone must necessarily possess a climate and a 

 flora in some respects peculiar, and quite unlike that of a broad continent 

 lying in the same latitude. 



Leaving out of view the northern tier of counties bordering on Georgia 

 and Alabama, the climatic characteristics of which are similar to those of 

 the contiguous States, the seasons of Florida present many striking pecu- 

 liarities, allying its climate closely to that of the tropics. We have the 

 constant trade-wind and rainy summer of the West Indies, an alternate 

 land and sea breeze, a dry and a wet season, and great uniformity of 



