203 
.FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
back one of those air pines that grtfw 
so queerly on the forest trees and yon 
will be astonished to find how many dif¬ 
ferent kinds there are. 
If you live near the sea you will have 
no difficulty in finding the beach convol¬ 
vulus, Ipomoea pes-capri, and this plant 
will thrive and make a fine fence cover 
even in the interior sand hills. On the 
coast, also, you will find the sea-grape, 
Cocoloba uvifera which will grow inland 
and make a grand specimen on a lawn, 
besides bearing fruit that makes the best 
kind of jelly. 
I must not forget the “Coontie” or 
Indian starch palm which grows in large 
quantities in some of the pine woods and 
also on some of the islands, so if you can¬ 
not afford to buy a sago palm you can at 
least have a lowly cousin of it—and you 
will find its downy brown seed cones very 
odd and attractive. Another odd plant 
which is common in Florida is the Calli- 
carpa Americana or French Mulberry 
with its cluster of persistent purple carpels. 
The time alloted to me will not allow 
of more than a mention of the hundreds 
of lesser vines, wild flowers, aquatics and 
grasses that grow freely with us and can 
be taken into the garden either by roots or 
seeds, but I venture to say that if any 
one g'oes into the deep places of the woods 
and takes up and plants one half of the 
plants I have mentioned he will find that 
he has only entered on the edge of a field 
that life is all to short to harvest. 
There is an especial charm and a pe¬ 
culiar pride of personal ownership in the 
possession of a tree taken up from the 
wilds and brought to your door yard and 
the memories of the trip in search of it 
* 
will furnish material for many happy 
reminiscences of your pioneer days. • 
Very, very strenuously do I urge on 
the newcomer that he think long and 
carefully before he destroys a fine native 
tree and equally so do 1 I urge that if the 
tree or shrub must go, you take it out 
completely, for many of them will not 
take meekly your efforts at destruction 
and will recall their existence to you by 
sending up root sprouts all over your 
lawn and flower beds. 
Quite recently I have observed not only 
palmettoes, but grasses and legumes com¬ 
ing through three inches of asphalt road, 
and if a wild plant is beautiful in its 
proper place it can be as unsightly in the 
wrong place as anything I know of. Do 
not think in terms of orange trees and dol¬ 
lars all the time but take your families 
for a picnic to the hammocks and the 
scrubs and the bayheads occasionally, and 
instead of gathering armfuls of ferns 
and flowers which will not survive the 
homeward journey, take up carefully and 
pack in moss one or two large roots of a 
fern or a nice young holly tree and you 
will have always with you the memento 
of a happy day. 
Too many of you suffer from precon¬ 
ceived and erroneous ideas that the woods 
and swamps are full of snakes and danger¬ 
ous insects, but if you will only use your 
eyes and ears in looking at and listening 
to the things that really are there, instead 
of straining them for things that are not 
there, you will open to yourselves a new 
and wonderful world that will be to you 
a never failing refuge from the cares and 
worries of a strenuous and nerve racking 
life. 
