4 
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: 
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4 
brilliancy of the tropical skies. Small 
wonder that Key West attracts art- 
ists from all over the country. 
The first stroll among the little 
narrow crooked streets and by-lanes 
with their sudden blind ends, is a - 
thrilling voyage of discovery to the 
visiting stranger of horticultural 
bent. Here and there, amid the pro- 
fusion of tropical growth, almost 
fantastically unreal, familiar friends 
can be recognized as greenhouse 
subjects or as summer annuals in 
northern latitudes, or a plant may 
be identified from some remembered 
past study or picture. But for the 
most part it is all bewilderingly 
new, and small satisfaction is gained 
by inquiries among the Cuban or 
Mestizo residents, who can furnish 
numerous pet names, but none that 
offer any dependable clew to the 
family name of the subject. 
Vacant Lots a Riot of Color 
As one passes a vacant corner lot, 
a flash of brilliant cobalt blue 
catches the eye; closer inspection 
shows the entire lot covered with a 
tumbling mass of vines bearing that 
most glorious blue of any flower— 
Clitoria ternatea, native to the Mo- 
lucca Islands, occasionally grown in 
our gardens as an annual. To the 
Cuban it is “the blue pea.” Fences 
are smothered in the spectacular 
Senecio scandens, from China, with 
its masses of brilliant orange bloom, 
and known only as “Mexican love 
vine.” “Heart flower” is variously 
applied to several plants, but nota- 
bly to Antigonon leptopus (Rosa de 
montana or corallita), which runs 
riot even in vacant lots. “Spider 
plant,” “orchid tree,” “slipper plant,” 
“cigar plant,’ ) “tulip. tree,” etc.,etc., 
give no hint as to their family ped- 
igree, and when the Cuban imagina- 
tion gives out it is “some wild flow- 
er’ or, more expressive still, “just 
a flower.” 
Wild flowers share the same obli- 
vion. Wandering over the sands of 
the abandoned salt flats, or around 
the old brick Civil War fort, East 
Martello Towers, a_ glossy-leaved 
evergreen vine bears stunning wide- 
open cups of fine purplish-violet; 
along the roadside is found a slender 
glaucous-leaved plant, about 8 inches 
high, with fringed blue-purple flow- 
ers closely resembling our fringed 
gentians; and a tall shrub with ev- 
ergreen foliage is smothered in clus- 
ters of tiny brown fluffy balls, in- 
tensely fragrant . .. none of these 
known, apparently, to anyone. 
It must be borne in mind that the 
casual visitor, however flower-mind- 
ed, is not always a botanist, and 
therefore the search for information 
must be directed somewhere .. . 
but where? A small survey of ex- 
isting plant material, made in 1933 
can be unearthed from the Cham- 
ber of Commerce, if the visitor has 

the bright ey of See theese. ee 
As far as it goes, this is helpful, © 
for it gives the locations where the © 
plants can be found; but it mentions | 
an amazingly small percent of the 
tropical vegetation so evidently long = 
established, that can be run down 
by even the rankest amateur in a 
short sojourn. 
Poinseitias Supply a Thrill 
Poinsettias furnish the first thrill 
Accustomed as we are to the 2-3- 
foot potted Christmas specimens, the 
hundreds of great shrubs from 10 
to 15 feet tall (as high as some of 
the little houses), literally smoth- 
ered in the brilliant scarlet “flow- 
ers,’ are eye-opening; and when the 
glistening purity of a white variety 
is stumbled on in a tiny front yard, 
or a peep into a back garden dis- , 
covers an indescribably lovely 
creamy-pink tone, that visitor “is 
off” for all time. And what a field 
for adventuring! For, unlike the 
combed and brushed aspect of Mi- 
ami, where every exotic plant is 
named, nursed with care and kept 
within bounds on the sophisticated 
estates, in Key West the rarest trop- 
ical plants have escaped from their 
original homes and without respect 
to rank or person run riot in the 
The Parade Passes My Door 
By MRS. FLORENCE M. SULLIVAN 
Quality Flower Shop, Okmulgee, Oklahoma 


I haven’t too much patience with 
the fellow who is so farsighted that 
he thinks only of the peace which is 
to follow this war. The war comes 
first, then the peace. But there are 
many things that will come with 
that peace which will not be easy 
to face, and it might be well to 
prepare ourselves for them. 
I am like the old negro woman 
who was talking about the boys and 
girls who were going away. “I am 
in the B class,” she said, “I will be 
here when they go and be here when 
they come back.” If I am living I 
expect to be here when they come 
back, but wonder if very many of 
them will want to come back to 
stay in the old home town. 
“DISILLUSION” 
Since the beginning of time it 
has meant disillusion to return to 
the place of your birth after a pro- 
longed absence. The buildings seem 
dwarfed, the people have changed 
(and seldom for the better), nothing 
seems to be in its right place. 
I have already heard it from boys 
who are home on leave. “My gosh,” 
they say, “why, I could walk down 
the street and call everybody I met 
by name, and now I can’t find a 
doggone fellow I know.” 
ae condone ie, the 
trees, so obviously of foreig 
_we have scarcely felt an inconven 








fresh water and the shallo 
together with the huge bo 
flowering vines which also be 

ered a) water do not flourish 
are found having taproots. Ad 
to this, it is said that the root 
the trees penetrate the sof 
rock by means of an acidity 
they develop, which disinteg 
(Continued on page 13) 


































A MAN 
Yesterday I was talking to a wo: 
an whose 18-year-old son had 
gone to the Navy. She said, 
greater understanding than I gave 
her credit. for having—‘T felt so : 
ry for his Dad, telling him that 
must take advantage of every 
cational opportunity and plan to go 
back to school when he returns 
knew that it was really good-! 
If he gets out of this whole | 
sound we still have lost him. He 
come back a man and make 
own decisions.” 
WAR 
They say that a war leaves n 
untouched, and I believe that. 
ated as we are here in Oklah 
ence from the war in a phys 
sense, but our heart-strings are 
stantly being pulled. = 
count noses when they get 
to come back. Let’s face 
