II 



SPANISH GARDENS OF THE SEMI- 

 TROPICS 



IT seems almost prophetic that the land which was 

 the scene of the earliest attempts at gardening 

 made by the white race on the western side of the At- 

 lantic, should have been named "flowery" by its dis- 

 coverer long before. This has a pleasant and alluring 

 sound, conjuring a picture of fair delights, of sunlight 

 and fragrance, and never a hint of a work-a-day world. 

 Wherein is the prophecy; for the gardens which came 

 indolently into existence beside the early Spanish 

 dwellings were gardens of sunlight and fragrance, of 

 fair delight veiling what of the work-a-day and prac- 

 tical was there — which was never a deal, at that. 



This much we are sure of because as late as 1712, 

 almost a century and a half after the establishment of 

 the settlement of St. Augustine, the failure of the usual 

 supply vessels, which came annually from Spain — or 

 from the Spanish base in the West Indies — reduced 

 .the settlers to such absolute famine that they spent the 



14 



