INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 
T HE art of landscape gardening is 
in its infancy in the tropics. The 
material is there for the production of 
effects which shall have all the romance 
and mystery that only a tropical jungle 
possesses, but the artists have seemingly 
been lacking. 
South Florida borders the tropics and 
yet is close enough to our great cities 
to be filled in winter by those who want 
to get away from cold weather. These 
northern residents — those who spend 
their winters and those who settle 
there—are the ones to develop the land¬ 
scape gardening of the south. It is 
everything to these people to have plenty 
of material from which to choose in 
making their picture effects. They will 
reach out and appropriate everything 
new which they see and like, and it is 
therefore of the first importance that 
they have presented to them the most 
beautiful plants of all the thousands 
which will grow on their places. Unless 
this is done they will fill their gardens 
with things which are easy to propagate 
and easy to obtain, regardless of whether 
they are beautiful or not. Those who 
have pushed on ahead in these matters 
and have tried out many things are most 
useful citizens of the communities in 
which they live. They are the pioneers, 
and their places become the centers from 
which spread the knowledge of what is 
best to plant. 
It is for the purpose of calling public 
attention to one of these places that this 
booklet is published. It gives the ex¬ 
perience of a man whose love for plants 
and whose belief in the possibilities of 
Biscayne Bay led him late in life to settle 
on its shores and gather around him the 
plants which his travels and reading had 
called to his attention. 
His example should lead others who 
are tired of the northern winters to con¬ 
sider how quickly trees grow in the 
south and what a beautiful place can be 
built up and enjoyed and left as, a heri¬ 
tage by one already in the afternoon of 
life. 
Mr. Charles T. Simpson has success¬ 
fully established on his place near Little 
River what is considered the best out- 
of-doors collection of palms anywhere 
on the Atlantic Coast, and his orchids 
and many rare and interesting orna¬ 
mental trees and shrubs, gathered from 
various parts of the world, make his 
place an arboretum which becomes of 
greater value every year, as the growth 
of the plants in it indicates their adapt¬ 
ability to the conditions of southern 
Florida. 
This paper by Mr. Simpson was pub¬ 
lished in the “Proceedings of the Florida 
State Horticultural Society” for 1912, 
but the limited edition of that report has 
made it already a rare publication. The 
rapidly increasing interest in the orna¬ 
mental plants which it describes made it 
seem desirable to reprint it in pamphlet 
form. Having had the pleasure of Mr. 
Simpson’s acquaintance, and having 
spent several days on his interesting 
place, it is a peculiar pleasure to write 
this brief introduction to his paper, 
which I trust will encourage many people 
to experiment as he has done with the 
rare and beautiful plants of the tropics. 
David Fairchild, 
Agricultural Explorer in Charge, Office of Foreign Seed and 
Plant Introduction, U. S. Department of Agriculture. 
