TROPICAL EFFECTS 323 



"My trip to the tropics," said a friend to me, "has forever 

 spoiled me for enjoying the puny little palms which the park 

 superintendents set out for tropical effects." It is all right enough 

 to come upon a secluded spot where the contents of a greenhouse 

 have been put outdoors for the summer. You understand at 

 once that this is done for their health and that their real mission 

 is winter beauty. But to try to make a big summer show with 

 plants that ought to be seen as tall trees is alternately painful and 

 ridiculous. 



The logic of this is not so easy to see as in the case of the 

 gaudy and quicker growing plants. Any person of taste can under- 

 stand that leaf forms give deeper and more lasting pleasure than 

 foliage of abnormal colours. "Why then," you may ask, "should 

 we not have these palms, if we can get their leaf forms in no other 

 way?" 



The answer is twofold. First, we can and should have these 

 identical plants from the tropics in our greenhouses, but they 

 should never be conspicuous in the landscape or prominent in the 

 garden. 



Second, every important leaf form in the tropics is approximated 

 by some plant that can stay outdoors all winter and therefore the 

 hardy plant should be given the preference in Northern landscapes 

 and gardens. 



To illustrate this great principle let us take one of the six 

 largest families of plants the Leguminosce, to which peas, beans, 

 and clovers belong. This order is very rich in tropical plants of 

 famous beauty, such as the acacias, mimosas, and tamarind. Now 

 the very soul of their beauty is a kind of feminine grace and airi- 

 ness w r hich is due to their feathery foliage. Their leaves are 

 composed of great numbers of small leaflets arranged with 



