FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
199 
vessel a liberal load of earth from near 
the spot, if not the actual spot, where 
it stood in Cuba, in which to plant it, 
on its arrival here, it would not be 
fair—not be an honest example to cite 
as successfully raised in our local soil, 
as some of the rest of us are now en¬ 
deavoring to do. 
We feel that we can with confidence 
assert that if other tree lovers and tree 
growers succeed as well as we have in 
raising fine specimens of the Ficus Pan- 
durata and the Ficus Altissima, they 
will not only themselves have the pleas¬ 
ure which comes from success, but will 
have the added pleasure of hearing the 
expressions of enthusiastic admiration 
from so many of the strangers who see 
them. 
True, ours (especially the Pandurat- 
as) have been helped along, but in a 
simple way. For the purpose of having 
a rich circular or round bed’ in which to 
plant flowers for the season, in mid- 
September or early October, a liberal 
supply of compost has been dug in 
around them. The small treatments of 
commercial fertilizers, and the regular 
and systematic watering of the flower 
plants, from the planting in November 
till the close of the season in April, have 
all beyond a doubt, in ten-fold manner, 
added to the beauty and stateliness of 
the tree, to the shade of the green of 
its larger leaves, and has made of it 
one of the most talked about trees on 
our ground. Nevertheless, other Pan- 
duratas not so much, being specially fav¬ 
ored, are in like manner showing up in 
a manner indicative of their apt fitness 
to play a part in tl*e beautifying of a 
park or garden, in this part of Florida 
at any rate. The fact that the Ficus 
elastica is so commonly found with us 
should not cause a fear on the part of 
the tree lovers that the presence of the 
already mentioned two other members 
of the Ficus family will cause too much 
of a sameness, for to 'our minds, the 
Ficus Pandurata and Ficus Altissima 
will show such distinct and strong per¬ 
sonalities of their own, such forms of 
beauty, differing from other Ficus, that 
there need be no fear of possessing 
specimens too nearly akin. Neverthe¬ 
less, we concede the point, indeed 
would very much emphasize it, that if 
a yard is limited as all the average pri¬ 
vate yards are, there is such a won¬ 
derful array of wonderful plants and 
trees that can successfully be grown in 
South Florida, that it would not, in our 
humble judgment, be the highest wis¬ 
dom, the best judgment, to place on the 
same limited area, two species of the 
same family, even though their beauty 
be great, and their differences in ap¬ 
pearance sufficiently marked. 
We could proceed and speak of other 
trees, but we feel we have imposed 
sufficiently on your patience. We do 
not, however, apologize for the tree 
friends we have made the subject of 
this talk. We are very sure that if you 
will become acquainted with them, if 
you are not already, that you, like us, 
will learn to love them and will take 
4 
much pleasure in having them near you, 
and will never cease marveling at this 
beloved Florida of ours, which takes the 
strange and beautiful in plant life from 
all the four quarters of the globe, and 
makes them her own. 
Floriat Florida! 
