31 
[ Eep. 'No, 564. ] 
ature of the other; that, however diversified the climates of the most eu¬ 
logized portions of the whole belt of the world above 28° N. lart., embraced 
in the miscalled temperate but really variable zone, equally great and 
sudden vicissitudes of temperature are common to them all; that, hence, 
our consumptive invalids who annually crowd to southern Europe, most 
generally perish in the vain search of the natural remedy of an equable 
temperature, which can be found only in the slandered torrid zone, or in 
tropical climates, among the mingled fruits and flowers of evergreen bow¬ 
ers, unvisited by the curse of cold ! and that, therefore, southern Florida, 
by the benignity of its climate, the proximity of its position, the form of 
its government, and the character of its people, combines more natural, so¬ 
cial, and political advantages for a warm dry winter asylum of our sickly 
voyagers, than France or Italy, Colombia or Cuba, or any other portion 
of the world. 
16 . That your memorialist has moreover shown that the same equabil¬ 
ity of temperature of southern Florida which is so favorable to human 
health, is so much more favorable to vegetable growth, that fertility 
of its atmosphere will overbalance the sterility of its soil; that its com¬ 
plete enjoyment of the best climate of the tropics is absolutely demonstra¬ 
ted by the actual growth of the tenderest plants of the including 
the Banana plant and the Cocoa palm, universally admitted to be the great¬ 
est blessings of God to man; that, hence, all the hardiest plants of tropical 
regions will undoubtedly thrive in similar soils and situations of its trop¬ 
ical territory, embracing the Cassave, the Cochineal, the Henequen and 
Pita plants, the Ticu, the Morriche, the Gomutus, and the Jaggery palms, 
and many more hardy productive plants of exceedingly great importance to 
mankind; that, as many such valuable vegetables of tropical climates are 
actually disseminated by birds and beasts, and do absolutely even spread 
themselves in miry marshes and arid sands, throughout dense forests, and 
over desert plains, in every tropical territory where a single individual may 
have arrived by accident or by design ; and as they include the celebrated 
medicines of Peruvian bark. Ipecacuanha, and Sarsaparilla, the delicious 
fruits of Lanseh, Mangosteen and Durion, the nutritive drink of Chocolate, 
the farinaceous food of Sago, and many othei perennial plants whose spon¬ 
taneous products alone will afibrd a healthy and comfortable subsistence 
to the human race, the profitable propagation of tropical plants may be 
immediately even the natural unimproved surfaces oiixo^- 
ical Florida ; that, as the course of the Gulf stream and the origin of St. 
John’s river, or the varied direction of many rivulets, indicate the swampy 
and marshy interior of southern Florida to be more elevated than its sandy 
arid stony coasts, the same canals which may drain its inundated marshes 
will irrigate its arid sands, and furnish water-power and water-carriage 
for the preparation and transportation of th.e products of both; and as it 
is thus so easily susceptible of great improvement for all forms of vegeta¬ 
tion and all classes of population, for the production and preparation of the 
Tea, the Coffee, and the Pepper plants, and of all other vegetables which 
delight in the sunshine of cultivated fields, and afford employment to the 
feeble in health, sex, and age, the profitable cultivation of tropical plants 
may be speedily commenced on the artificially improved surfaces of tropi¬ 
cal Florida ; and that, therefore, contemplating the many profitable plants 
which may be immediately propagated in the shade, and the numerous 
valuable vegetables which may be speedily cultivated in the sun, of south- 
