Ornamentals 
Marion A. McAdow 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
How would you like to go out in your 
back yard and help yourself to a choice 
of ioo different kinds of fruits? This is 
one of the possibilities of life in the 
southern part of Florida where a tem¬ 
perature of 32 degrees is not kept up for 
too many consecutive hours. These trees 
are now growing in various parts of the 
state as an assurance that it can be done. 
The most that are mentioned in the list 
that follows are right now growing in 
Prof. Simpson’s garden near Miami. He 
has, in fact, many more than one hun¬ 
dred different kinds of fruit trees doing 
well with him but 100 different tasting 
fruits would be a sufficient number to sat¬ 
isfy the average individual. Some of 
these assume great proportions and make 
noble trees, some are handsome shrubs 
and others are plants that are suitable for 
hedges and windbreaks. Others are vines 
that help to add adornment to a home and 
if one wished to confine himself to this 
list for its decorative qualities as well as 
its economic value, one could surround 
his home with all the loveliness that trees 
and plants afford for their varied habits, 
shapes, foliage and flowers and then have 
something that would afford food as well 
and that of many different types. There 
would not be a day in the year when a 
few of these would not be in a state of 
maturity and ready for plucking. There 
are probably many more desirable fruits 
that may be added to this list that are now 
unknown to us. Our Agricultural De¬ 
partment at Washington has men in for¬ 
eign countries constantly looking for just 
these additions to our already large one 
of trees, shrubs and plants that have had 
to be introduced in this country from the 
other side of the world or South America, 
Central America, and Mexico. 
The list that follows contains some¬ 
times many different kinds of fruits in 
one family. For instance, in the citrus 
family there are 18 quite different kinds 
of fruits embraced. The Anona family is 
another with a number of very different 
fruits under that head. One hundred dif¬ 
ferent kinds are easily found in the list 
that follows: 
Anacardium occidentale or Cashew 
Nut is a strangely formed apple with its 
nut or seed on the outside, the different 
varieties ranging in size from a cherry to 
a pear. It is slightly acid and both the 
apple and the nut are edible, the latter 
needing roasting first. The gum that 
forms on the trunk is the base of a fine 
varnish that is used to protect books and 
woodwork from the ravages of the white 
ant, in tropical countries that are infested 
with it. 
Florida is happily free from this for¬ 
midable pest. The Anacardium is sen¬ 
sitive to cold and will probably not stand 
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