The first step in semi-tropical botany would be to be able to iden- 
tify the Royal Palm and then the Cocoanut Palms . . . , then the 
Date Palms and Palmettos. This could be done easily from the car 
window on your way down and followed up in the grounds of the 
Royal Poinciana at Palm Beach, where the head gardener is nice about 
going around with the thirsting novice. Indeed, most of the large 
Florida hotels have a collection of Palms, Cycads, and Bamboos 
scattered about the grounds. 
Vines Florida's vines are particularly beautiful, because they are 
brought there from all parts of the tropics. 
The blazing orange vine which you see on all the porches is the 
Brazilian Flame Flower {Pyrostegia venusta) of the Bignonia family; 
another, almost as brilliant but more yellow in tone, is the Cat's Claw 
Vine (Bignonia unguis-gati). 
A large striking lavender-violet tubular flower, three inches across, 
which hangs its graceful festoons over fence and pergola is the Thun- 
bergia grandijtora from India. I wonder if it could be used in our 
Northern greenhouses like its relative the golden Alamander from 
Guiana? 
Delicate blue Solanums; choice Clerodendrons; numerous varieties 
of Trumpet Creepers; and Jessamine; and the dear little Creeping Fig 
(Ficus pumila or re-pens) are some of the more prominent of the choice 
foreign vines to be met with in gardens all along the East Coast. 
Trees The flowering tree which first challenges your curiosity and admira- 
tion is the mountain ebony (Bauhinia) in full bloom in January, a 
mass of Cattleyea orchids it seems, incongruously lovely to the New 
York eye! Then the Gumbo- Limbo tree, the Australian Oak, and the 
Camphor Tree from China all seem very strange, to say nothing of Rub- 
ber Plants as large as forest trees ! Unfortunately for us Northerners 
the two most beautiful Florida trees bloom in May when we are all 
far away in our own gardens. They are the celebrated Royal Poin- 
ciana (Delonix regia) from Madagascar and the Jacaranda (/. mimo- 
saefolia) from Brazil. The latter bears a wonderful lavender- violet 
flower in great profusion. 
Shrubs The first shrub thrust upon your notice is the ubiquitous Snow- 
Bush {Phyllanthus) in its four homely varieties and is used every- 
where as a hedge-plant though scraggly and of a mottled, unpleasant 
appearance. It vies in popularity with the Crotons. Crotons are 
everywhere and in a thousand glaring hybrids. There is nothing in 
the Universe like them, save a Paisley Shawl or a "Hot Tamale." 
A wiry, dark green shrub, with tiny, tubular scarlet blossoms, is 
the Fountain Plant from Central America {Russellia juncia); and 
those queer long leaves that seem to come up from the ground without 
any stems, are the Bow-String Hemp (Sanseovera), the toughest char- 
acters in the floral world. 
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