118 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
being Key West, where the fruit brought 
remunerative prices. Since Miami has be¬ 
come a city of commercial importance, 
the growers have found a splendid 1 mar¬ 
ket for the output here. The soils on the 
Keys are, as a rule, very rocky. Indeed 
so much so that they are not cultivated as 
a whole. The rock formation is what is 
known as the “pot hole formation,” the 
plants being set in the holes or cavities 
where there is some soil. 
Since the extension of the Florida 
East Coast Railway to Miami and South, 
banana growing is assuming greater pro¬ 
portions and many have, and are planting 
for commercial purposes. One planter in 
the Homestead country has less than an 
acre planted from which he has sold this 
season four hundred bunches at one dol¬ 
lar per bunch. 
SOILS WHERE GROWN. 
Perhaps there is no other tree or plant 
which will flourish on all sorts of soils, 
from the richest mulck to the most ordi¬ 
nary pine lands, as the banana. Seeming¬ 
ly it rejoices in a rich, black alluvial soil, 
yet at the same time on the poorest sand 
lands, by the aid of fertilizers and water 
it seems to flourish equally as well. The 
dwarf or smaller varieties thrive better 
on the sand lands than the larger and 
coarser kind's. It is believed from the 
experiments thus far made, that banana 
growing in the near future will become a 
most important factor in this Southern 
clime. Cotton seed meal or almost any 
kind of well balanced fertilizers are uti¬ 
lized readily by these plants. 
OTHER TROPICAL FRUITS. 
There are a large numiber of other 
kinds of tropical fruits which have been 
and are being grown in this Southern 
territory which so far have not proven of 
commercial value; but many of them 
should be planted for the fruit for home 
use and for decorative plants. Among 
these are the Kai-apple, (Aberia Caffra,) 
Carissa, (Carissa pappaya,) Star-apple, 
(C. Cainito,) Cocoa-Plum, (C. Niger,) 
Sour Sop, (A. Muricata,) Rose Apple, 
(E. Jambos,) Sea Grape, (C. uvifera) 
Barbados Cherry, (M. glabra) Maumee 
Sapota, (L. Mammasoa,) Ceriman of 
Trinidad (M. deliciosa.) This is but a 
small list of the real tropical fruits which 
may be grown in the portions of the State 
where frosts do not occur. Nearly all of 
the above list are being grown in the vi¬ 
cinity of Miami and several of the most 
rare kinds of these fruits were exhibited 
at the Dade County Fair which was held 
in March last. While many of these fruits 
will never be of commercial value, they 
are very palatable and should be grown. 
The pineapple, guava and other fruits 
are not mentioned in this paper as they 
are being grown extensively in many por¬ 
tions of the State. 
