FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
187 
the yellow flowers of the alamanda and 
the purple of the bougainvilla go so well 
together. The rosa de Montana makes a 
very pretty thing with its pink flowers 
most all the year. The clerodendron 
balfouri, I don’t know any other name 
for it, is another very nice vine, it is a 
strong grower and has red and white 
flowers. 
Of the bedding plants the crotons are 
the most important, and what a hand¬ 
some bed you can make with them, there 
is such a great variety of shapes and col¬ 
ors. A bed of crotons not planted too 
close together with some thing green be¬ 
tween, something that does not grow too 
high, like sprengerii or the Boston ferns 
makes a very pretty bed and one that 
will almost take care of itself. The 
sprengerii and ferns are used a great 
deal for house plants, for jardinieres, 
there is nothing better though for this 
purpose than the pandanus veitchii with 
its long striped green and white leaves. 
I have heard it stated that a pandanus 
will stand more tough treatment than a 
mule. The New Zealand wax, wander¬ 
ing jew, poinsettia, dwarf hydrangea 
and crinum are some more very nice 
small plants. Prof. Rolfs told me he 
had seen the crinum as far north as Mel¬ 
bourne on the East Coast. It certainly 
is a thing everyone should have, it is a 
bulbous plant and is not particular as 
to soil, it is fine when in flower, the flow¬ 
ers are large and white of an umbel for¬ 
mation and the leaves are long and green 
usually drooping to the ground. 
I want to say a few words about some¬ 
thing that can hardly be called an orna¬ 
mental and that is the Florida packing¬ 
house. I have often wondered of the 
hundreds of packing-houses in Florida 
how many of them are a pleasure to look 
at, and yet why not ? Let us figure a lit¬ 
tle on how much more it#would cost to 
make the packing-house look good instead 
of looking bum. The roof and floor 
would be about the same in any case, so 
what we have to consider are the sides 
and ends. The cheapest way of making 
the sides, by using upright boards with 
or without battens would cost three to 
four dollars per square, next, using sid¬ 
ing would make it four to five dollars per 
square and if it is to last more than ten 
or twelve years it will have to be paint¬ 
ed every three years which will be a dol¬ 
lar and a half per square more each time. 
Now if shingles are used, number threes 
will last about fifty years on the side of 
the building, the cost would be with a 
little extras, like better fixed windows, 
about six to seven dollars per square or 
the difference between a bum looking 
packing-house and a good looking pack¬ 
ing-house would be about three dollars 
and a half per square; in a house 25x50 
where there are about thirteen squares the 
total difference would be fifty dollars. 
But if you want to really make it in keep¬ 
ing with the orange grove make it of ce¬ 
ment, this would cost from about fifteen 
to twenty dollars per square. 
Prof. Rolfs—We have to be chary 
about planting the sago palm because it 
is quite susceptible to a certain fungus 
which attacks it and causes what is 
known as “sun scald” to the leaves. This 
has happened quite frequently and you 
must go very slow unless you have close 
and compact soil in which to plant the 
sago palm. Of course, we all know it 
is not really a sago palm, as it belongs 
to an entirely different family. For this 
fungus disease there is no remedy. 
