Beautifying Town and Country 
Prof. Frank A. Waugh. 
INTRODUCTION 
Ladies and Gentlemen : My first and 
most pleasant duty is to thank you 
for the kind invitation which has 
enabled me to be present at this 
meeting. It is a great pleasure to come to 
Florida, and especially to come here at 
this season of the year; this beautiful 
season of the year when everything is 
fine out doors and the country is no long¬ 
er infested with tourists from the North. 
It is a most beautiful season, and the one 
so many people miss. 
I wish also to compliment the mem¬ 
bers of the Society for the grand work 
it is doing, the opportunities it gives and 
the enjoyment. 
But I must hasten on with my subject. 
I feel as though it were almost necessary 
to make apology. I am too old a speak¬ 
er to apologize for anything, or I might 
say that an explanation is in order for a 
man to come from New England to talk 
to you about anything of this kind. It 
would seem as though he knew nothing 
about it. I don’t want to throw the 
blame on New England. I know some 
of you people have heard the story about 
Pat Murphy and the natives of Australia. 
Pat was as fine a man as was ever run 
out of County Cavanaugh, and took up 
his residence in New York City. One 
day he visited the Zoological Gardens and 
became interested in the kangaroos. He 
could not make out the words on the 
sign attached to the cage, and when the 
keeper came along he asked him to read 
what was on the board. The keeper 
read, “Kangaroo:—a Native of Aus¬ 
tralia.” “Holy Mither,” says Pat, “and 
my sister married wan of those natives 
of Australia.” (Laughter.) 
•I hope^ however, that it does not reflect 
any on the credit of New England that 
I should disclaim any nativity there. 
I want to speak to you on the subject 
of gardening in rather a large way. I 
am going to speak about landscape, which 
has to do with the planting of -shrubs, 
trees, etc. You must know I am unfamil¬ 
iar to a large degree with the ornamentals 
of Florida. But landscape gardening 
deals also with the principles of design. 
Those principles are the same in Florida 
as in Massachusetts, and I feel that if 
we confine ourselves to that field there 
will be no misunderstanding, and that 
you will see how you can apply them to 
the conditions which exist about you. I 
shall dwell particularly upon the public 
aspects of this work as it applies to pub¬ 
lic gardens and grounds and civic af¬ 
fairs generally. 
At the present time, we are developing 
a branch of landscape gardening which 
we call civic art, which means the appli- 
