148 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ter time, and the deep red of the acaly- 
phas with the gray trunks and waving 
leaves overhead is a sight worth see¬ 
ing. Looking to the right a little you 
look over the hibiscus immediately in 
front of you to the lawn and on up to 
where it is topped with a fine row of 
Australian pines and oleanders. These 
keep off the ocean winds and are on 
either side of the house running par¬ 
allel with the river and ocean. The 
natural growth from here to the ocean 
is not very high—not more than ten 
feet—and it has been left untouched 
excepting for an avenue that runs down 
to the ocean. This is more an avenue 
of convenience than beauty, for it is 
hard to make the grass grow, or any¬ 
thing else, here. It is lined on each 
side with century plants. As you stand 
on the porch, though, the little view 
of the ocean that you get makes you 
want more. 
The lawn is spotted with a flower 
bed or two near the foot; not too 
many, though, for the broad expanse 
of lawn with the avenue of palms at 
the bottom has made the place more 
effective than many flower beds. 
As we walk up the cocoanut-lined 
avenue we see a slat house on the 
right. This is for the more tropical 
plants, and it is hidden from view of 
the house with an embankment of hi¬ 
biscus in front and bamboo behind. 
There is a traveler’s tree there and 
some of the more tender palms. The 
top, which can hardly be seen, is cov¬ 
ered with a bougainvillea, and when it 
is in full mass of color it looks like a 
colored church on a picnic day when 
purple is the style. Around behind the 
house is tucked the vegetable garden. 
If one should be dropped down here 
from somewhere up North in the win¬ 
ter time without ever having seen 
Florida, they would say: “Ah, how 
well named.” 
Beyond the slate house is a small 
orange grove, and on one side there 
is a slat windbreak that has a hibiscus 
on it, trained and trimmed as a vine. 
Here is where beauty and utility are 
combined. The salmon hibiscus re¬ 
sponds most readily to trimming. On 
the left side between the avenue and 
the river are various specimen plants 
and trees. These are well protected 
from too much wind by the river front 
windbreak. Here there is an araucaria 
about thirty feet high, and did you 
ever see a pandanus utilis fifteen feet 
high ? It looks like a huge grayish yel¬ 
low snake standing straight up, and a 
few projecting here and there horizon¬ 
tally from the main one, and each hold¬ 
ing in its mouth a bunch of stemless 
saw palmetto leaves. 
As we go further up we come to the 
next man’s place, and at the junction 
of the avenue we are on, and the one 
that runs from the river up >to his 
house there are on the four corner four 
grand specimens of Phoenix canaden¬ 
sis. They are beauties, having an ex¬ 
panse of about sixteen feet, making a 
fine, dense shade. With two of these 
out on the lawn, with a nice comfort¬ 
able couch beneath, what bliss for the 
summer time. As we go further—but 
we are off the place we started at, so 
will return to our launch with one more 
lingering look. 
