FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
187 
geous summer bloomers, they will make 
themselves sufficiently conspicuous in 
their season. No one coufd hide a 
Royal Poinciana in full bloom. 
In beautifying one’s grounds, the 
great rule of decoration applies as truly 
as it does in placing the adornments on 
a building, or a piece of furniture. One 
must always decorate construction, and 
not construct decoration. Keeping this 
. motto in mind one will be led to plant 
in such a way as to emphasize the 
realities and important features of one’s 
place. The extent of the land can be 
indicated by hedges or banks of larger 
trees and shrubs; or, if it is a small 
yard, by a border of flower beds against 
the fence. The entrance should be em¬ 
phasized by strong large trees or 
shrubs. A little gateway could have an 
arbor above it. A driveway may have 
an avenue of palms to show its im¬ 
portance. Turns in the driveway or 
path should be marked by some prom¬ 
inent trees or groups. The main en¬ 
trance to the house should be made no¬ 
ticeable by some conspicuous arrange¬ 
ment of plants. Wherever dignity is 
desired, symmetrical effects are surest— 
like pairs of compact shrubs or avenues 
of trees of straight upward growth. 
Repetition always gives emphasis. For 
this reason the most impressive effects 
ate gained by the use of many plants of 
one variety. However interesting to a 
botanist a place may be which has no 
two plants alike, it can not make as 
lasting an impression upon the eye of 
the average observer as one which has 
some special feature. For all these im¬ 
portant positions, which are the frame 
work about which other planting will 
grow, only vigorous hardy varieties 
should be chosen. Smaller plants or 
more distant backgrounds can be al¬ 
tered without leaving a distorted de¬ 
sign. 
Many of our most reliable plants are 
natives or so well known that they are 
not considered worth placing in prom¬ 
inent positions, yet to strangers they 
are quite as beautiful as many of the 
rare plants which we grow only with 
difficulty. It is not easy to find in iall 
the world a more glorious tree than 
the magnolia grandiflora. Nor should 
we forget that our native pines make 
majestically picturesque specimens when 
given room to develop; or, if they 
have already reached maturity in 
crowded straightness, that their lofty 
trunks make splendid supports for the 
tallest climbing vines. Our beautiful 
cabbage palmettoes will grow in any soil 
and endure cold and even fire. The na¬ 
tive cedar should not be overlooked, nor 
the gladsome wild plum, whose prodi¬ 
gality of bloom is as rapturous as a 
bird’s song. Above all we must place 
the orange—commercialized it may be, 
yet still it has no rival as a winter¬ 
blooming tree. I have heard more 
praise given the sturdy Aggripina— 
that faithful little red rose which 
scarcely stopped blooming for the big 
freeze in 1895—than for any of the 
fashionable new varieties. Yet few 
people would take the trouble even to 
imagine what constant pleasure an ever- 
blooming hedge of these roses would 
give, nor how impressive it would be. 
Another rose which scarcely lets a day 
