6 
PLANTS OF DADE COUNTY, FLORIDA 
therefore be only a sort of “first aid” 
to the cultivator. 
NATIVE ORNAMENTAL PALMS. 
This region is especially rich in vege¬ 
table forms. In the pine woods the 
greater number of the species belong 
to a warm temperate flora, this being 
almost its extreme southern extension. 
A very large tropical element of the flora 
has evidently migrated from the West 
Indies, the Spanish Main and Central 
America, the seeds having probably 
been carried on the Gulf Stream and 
deposited on our shores during hurri¬ 
canes or high southeasterly winds. The 
seeds of a few forms may have been 
carried by birds or the winds. The 
region is exceedingly rich in trees, a 
number of which are quite ornamental. 
Within five miles of Miami there are 
probably growing wild today nearly 
or quite a hundred species of trees or 
large shrubs which sometimes attain 
tree-like proportions. Most of these 
species inhabit the hammocks, and in 
many places they become veritable air 
gardens, being loaded down, even to the 
breaking point, with a great variety of 
orchids, Tillandsias and other air pines, 
ferns, Peperomias and cacti. 
First among the native ornamentals 
should be mentioned the palms, “The 
Princes of the Vegetable Kingdom.’’ 
South Florida is excedingly rich in 
palms. No less than 13 species have 
been found growing wild in Dade 
County alone; another arboreal saw pal¬ 
metto, Acoelorraphe arborescens being 
reported, so far, only from Monroe 
County, but without doubt it will be 
found in Dade County also. 
The Cocoanut Palm (Cocos nucifera) 
has become thoroughly naturalized on 
the mainland of extreme South Florida- 
arid the Lower Keys. Some one has 
said that it is a “Marvel of Titanic 
grace,” and no finer description of it 
can be given. It is the tree of the poor 
as well as of the rich, and every settler, 
no matter how little improvement he 
makes, plants a few cocoanuts, that, in 
a few years, will make his place glorious. 
The young plants are a little tender and 
are sometimes killed with frost, but 
after they have begun to form a trunk 
they are out of danger. They grow 
everywhere here from the lowest and 
saltiest marsh to the highest pine land, 
and the seed from our trees will, in a 
majority of cases, germinate and pro¬ 
duce other trees. 
If the Cocoanut is a “Marvel of 
Titanic grace,” the Royal Palm may 
be called “A Marvel of Titanic ma¬ 
jesty.” I know of no tree on the earth 
to which the term majestic can be 
more appropriately applied. Unfortu¬ 
nately it has been found that the name 
Oreodoxa, signifying “Glory of the 
Mountains,” which has long been ap¬ 
plied to it, really belongs to another 
group of South American palms, hence 
the name was changed to Roystonea. 
I never look at one of these lordly trees 
but I am thankful that I live in a land 
where it not only grows but is native. 
Mr. O. F. Cook, of Washington, who 
gave the genus its new name, believes 
that the Floridian form is distinct from 
the Cuban, and has called it Roystonea 
floridana, but other authorities differ 
from him and believe it to be O. regia. 
Certain it is that I have never seen any 
of the royal palms in Cuba attain either 
to the height or dimensions that wild or 
cultivated specimens reach in Florida. 
At the Royal Palm Hammock back of 
Cape Romano, and on Paradise Key in 
the southeast part of Dade County, are 
many trees which must be well over 100 
leet in height. I never see one of these 
majestic palms but what I feel as though 
mortals ought to fall on their knees be¬ 
fore it and worship it with bowed, bared 
heads. The royal palm is most at home 
in low, rich hammock, but does well in 
salt marshes, if not too wet and salty. 
As a rule it does not do well on the 
high pine land, but it may be helped by 
liberal mulching, by digging in a coating 
of muck, and by fertilizing. Quite a 
number of them growing wild~in the 
swamp just north of me were destroyed 
since I came here by wood cutters. 
Pseudophoenix sargentii was discov¬ 
ered some years ago on Elliot’s Key, 
