264 A Horticulturist in Florida. 



ing rapidly during the whole winter ; and this is only one example out of 

 many that might be named. The deUcate white houstonia, several species 

 of violets, and other flowers to me nameless, nestle among the leaves on the 

 borders of the evergreen hummocks, or hide in the grassy wilderness of 

 the pine-openings ; while the forests and brookside-thickets are fragrant with 

 the golden bloom of the yellow jasmine {Gclsemium sempervirens). Ever)^ 

 day of the year, in this land of perpetual efflorescence, a beautiful bouquet 

 awaits the gathering ; and our flower-garden extends from sea to sea. 



The absence of winter does not, as one might hastily infer, imply contin- 

 ual summer. The true summer here is scarcely longer than the nominal 

 summer of the North. The highest temperature, which is less perceptible 

 here than in the Carolinas and Georgia, continues little more than one- 

 fourth of the year, the other three-fourths being unlike any season as expe- 

 rienced elsewhere, but resembling spring more than autumn or winter ; and 

 the weather is, in the main, incomparably delightful. 



The exceptions to this pleasant state of things in the matter of weather 

 occur during the months of January and February, mainly in the latter 

 month, and consist in an occasional north-east storm, a chilly rain last- 

 ing sometimes two or three days, and a somewhat more frequent cold, 

 rough wind from the north-west, — the " norther " of Texas, 1 presume, 

 modified and softened very greatly in its overland journey south-westward. 

 During the prevalence of these winds, an overcoat is sometimes in demand. 

 But this somewhat disagreeable weather is the rare exception, as I have 

 said, and the bright, sunny, Indian-summerish days the rule, even here just 

 on the borders of the quasi-tropical zone. Farther south, these cold winds 

 are not felt at all. 



The soil of Florida is scarcely less peculiar than its climate. Its pre- 

 dominating character is that of a light sandy loam, superimposed upon a 

 basis of limestone, shell-rock, marl, or clay. The departures from this type, 

 however, are numerous, and extend, on the one hand, to an almost pure 

 sand, and, on the other, to the richest vegetable mould. 



Our lands are generally classified as pine-land, hummock-land, and swamp- 

 land. 



The pine-land is of every degree of fertility ; some tracts being most excel- 

 lent in quality, — in fact, second to no land in the State, — and others ver)- 



