62 
House & Garden 
An Even Finer 
Detroit Electric 
The discriminating public looks naturally to the 
Detroit Electric for the latest ideas in enclosed 
car design and construction. 
This year’s model is a worthy successor to the 
long line of cars which have maintained Detroit 
Electric dominance. A perfect harmony of line 
—graceful, distinctive, yet dignified; an excep¬ 
tional riding comfort, attained by the use of 
specially designed three-quarter elliptic springs, 
long, wide and flat; an artistic selection in up¬ 
holstery and interior fittings which combines 
beauty, luxury and comfort. 
Already those who have seen this new model are 
acclaiming it the finest car of any type yet pro¬ 
duced for city and suburban use. You, too, will 
be delighted with it. 
On Exhibition at the Shows 
At the automobile shows in New York. Chicago 
and elsewhere this new Detroit Electric will be 
shown. At the same time, it will be exhibited in 
the showrooms of leading distributors the coun¬ 
try over. See it and enjoy a thorough test of 
its riding cpialities. 
The Electric ivas the pioneer en¬ 
closed car—and it is still the best 
Detroit Electric Car Company 
DETROIT, MICHIGAN 
Garden Cities of the South 
(Continued from page 60) 
effort to outdo Palm Beach in attrac¬ 
tions and attractiveness, and toward 
this effort its flowers and gardens are 
contributing royally. It has a vast 
variety of sub-tropical flora. 
While the possibilities for unusual 
landscape effects and gardening are ex¬ 
cellent throughout Florida, this is par¬ 
ticularly true at Miami. Great num¬ 
bers of shrubs, vines and trees, which 
are seen in the North only in green¬ 
houses, grow here out in the open and 
reach the height of their beauty during 
January, February and March. Mr. 
Lee LaTrobe Bateman, the landscape 
architect and engineer of many of 
Miami’s beautiful estates, has given par¬ 
ticular attention to the subject of what 
can and what cannot be profitably 
grown in Florida gardens, with especial 
reference to the gardens of Miami. He 
has found that such flowers as salvias, 
petunias, nasturtiums, tea and hybrid 
roses, Easter lilies, daffodils and narcis¬ 
sus can be used during the winter 
months, but in Florida’s tropical clime 
they require excessive care and atten¬ 
tion, whereas, with foliage plants, bet¬ 
ter and more lasting effects can be ob¬ 
tained with much less labor. Of fol¬ 
iage plants the chief exponents in Miami 
are the acalyphas. These are fast grow¬ 
ing and can be used either as single 
specimens or in border planting, or as 
a hedge, since they stand severe prun¬ 
ing and trimming. Three species are 
used. 
Next in importance come the crotons 
or codiffiums, beautiful plants with 
many forms of handsome and odd 
foliage of the most brilliant coloring, 
ranging from almost pure white to light 
and deep yellow, orange, pink, red and 
crimson, in the most charming com¬ 
binations. The leaves take on all kinds 
of forms, some ovate with short stalks, 
others narrow and spatulate and still 
others very narrow and corkscrewed. A 
very attractive hedge is made of Phyl- 
lanthiis nivosus or snow bush, with its 
pretty white, green, pink and red mot¬ 
tled leaves. 
Shrubs and Trees 
Of flowering shrubs, the oleander and 
hibiscus in many varieties are planted 
as specimen plants, clumps, hedges and 
windbreaks. Several varieties of bau- 
hinia, cassias, Cordia sebestena or 
gei’ger tree, artabotrys, ylang ylang, 
Hamelia patens, jacobinias, ixoras in 
several varieties, Murraya exotica or 
orange jasmine, Lawsonia inermis, and 
a host of others furnish cut flowers at 
all seasons of the j'ear. 
A very ornamental plant at Miami is 
the Ravenala madagascariensis or trav¬ 
elers’ tree. It grows well here, exceed¬ 
ing twenty feet in height, blooming 
every year and making seed frequently. 
It is a splendid subject when properly 
placed. The vines available to Miami 
gardens are almost too numerous to 
mention. The three favorites seem to 
be the bougainvillea, in the sandreiana, 
glabra and latcritis varieties. There 
are many beautiful native orchids which 
can be gathered in the nearby ham¬ 
mocks and woods, as well as an immense 
variety of Cuban orchid, all of which 
flourish exceedingly well around Miami. 
Last, but certainly not least, are the 
palms, always a matter of extreme in¬ 
terest to Northern visitors. The cocoa- 
nut palm (Cocos nucifera) is the most 
prominent feature of the landscape, with 
its beautiful trees, some of them fully 
fifty feet high and bearing hundreds of 
nuts every year. Next in importance 
come the date palms in three varieties, 
the fishtail palm and numerous others 
including, of course, the native sabal 
palmetto. The stately royal palm lends 
dignity to the Miami landscape, w’nile 
the sago palm and many varieties of 
the fan palm add to the tropical at¬ 
mosphere. 
Palms in great variety are the chief 
motif of the many beautiful estates at 
Orlando. Ferns of the sword family 
are used extensively in flower boxes, 
and small potted sago palms are gen¬ 
erously employed. One estate in par¬ 
ticular, that of Mr. Harry Beeman, has 
a most remarkable rose garden on the 
border of Lake of the Woods. The 
Paul Neyron roses from this estate are 
famous throughout Florida. Orlando, 
horticulturally, is most noted for its 
wonderful (displays of flame vine, which 
cover many of the tallest trees and even 
the fronts of some of the houses, with 
its masses of brilliant color. Another 
big feature at Orlando is the bougain¬ 
villea, which grows in bush form and 
can also be trained as a vine. The 
flowers of this plant form banks of 
rich purple in many parts of the town. 
Tall and stately pine trees are in evi¬ 
dence everywhere. 
In the center of Florida, at Mountain 
Lake, there is a social colony of con¬ 
siderable interest, the members of which 
are expending great efforts to make it 
a model of horticultural perfection. 
Bougainvillea, hibiscus, allamanda, poin- 
settia and other flowers and a great 
variety of palms are extensivelj' used 
on the many estates of wealthy North¬ 
erners. This place is halfway between 
the east and west coasts and has the 
highest elevation in the State, about 
240'. It is in the heart of Polk 
County, the leading county in the State 
in the growth of citrus fruit. 
Gardens at Belleair 
One of the Florida resorts which is 
going to be a close rival of the east 
coast cities within a short time is 
Belleair, on the west coast, overlook¬ 
ing the Gulf of Mexico, twenty-five 
miles west of Tampa. Here the vege¬ 
tation, both natural and cultivated, is 
exceptionally attractive. Ferns, palms 
and bamboo grow in great profusion, 
as well as all the other blooms, trees 
and vines for which Florida is noted. 
Right next door is Clearwater, called 
“the golden sunset city.” This little 
town claims to be one of the garden 
spots of the South. Oleanders, hibiscus, 
poinsettias, bignonia, bougainvilleas and 
other tropical flowers grow here in great 
profusion, attaining in some instances 
the size of a medium-sized apple tree 
in the North. Shrubs, such as lantana, 
all of the jasmines and trailing vines of 
all kinds seem particularly suited to the 
climate around Clearwater, as do palms 
of all varieties. 
There are a number of other very 
attractive towns along the west coast 
of Florida, and in nearly all of them 
flowers, trees and vines have been en¬ 
couraged to form a most attractive 
landscape, as at St. Petersburg, Braden- 
town and Sarasota. 
This story of the land of flowers and 
winter palaces would not be complete 
without mention of Fort Myers, on 
the banks of the Caloosahatchee River, 
leading from Lake Okeechobee. This 
little town is the winter gathering place 
of a number of notable people who are 
spending many millions of dollars to 
create there estates of great beauty sur¬ 
rounded by gardens, trees, shrubs and 
vines of every description. Mr. Thomas 
A. Edison has spent a great deal of 
money in collecting a most remarkable 
array of tropical palms, and Mr. Henry 
Ford, the automobile king, whose home 
is near that of the great inventor, has 
done likewise. Mr. John M. Dean of 
Providence, R. I., is spending vast 
sums of money in the horticultural de¬ 
velopment of his estate at Fort Myers, 
while Mr. Med Kellum, Dr. Franklin 
(Continued on page 64) 
