broad shrubbery of variegated and gorgeously 

 colored shrubs, Crotons, Hibiscus, Aurelias, Panaxes, 

 Durantas, the flaming Poinsettia, Draccenas, and 

 many other beautiful plants and bushes, while 

 the trees were further adorned with creepers and 

 orchids. 



In the center was a large lawn of the purest 

 and greenest grass that can be seen anywhere, 

 sentineled in its corners by tall spreading " Flam- 

 boyants " (Poinciana regia) whose immense bril- 

 liant mass of fire-like blossoms eclipsed every- 

 thing else while it lasted. 



The drive had a cross-road which led through 

 a porch under an outlying wing of the house. This 

 porch was an object of great beauty, covered as 

 it was with creepers Ficus stipulata, with its fine 

 ivy-like leaves, and the gigantic variegated Pothos 

 clinging close to and clothing the masonry, the 

 whole entwined and festooned with Hoyas and 

 Beaumontia grandiflora. The Beaumontia, to my 

 mind, is the most magnificent of creepers, and the 

 luxuriance of its growth and opulence of its bloom 

 are probably unsurpassed by any other of its kind. 

 It mounts to the summit of high trees, say of forty 



56 



