num_pages: 280
description: No chapter in the story of America is more colorful than the opening up of Florida about the turn of the century. And no one is better qualified to picture the pioneering of the romantic part of the country in authentic fiction than Theordore Pratt, whose earlier novel The Barefoot Mailman is recognized as a Florida classic, having sold nearly half a million copies in all editions.The Flame Tree is a tale of the people who built a luxurious playground out of the isolated settlement called Palm Beach. To this wild frontier, Tip Totten, one of the first white hunters to roam the mysterious tropical Everglades, brings his bride, Jenny. Their home is a small thatch palm "cabbage hut"; their proudest possession the royal poinciana or Flame Tree that blooms brilliantly outside. It is from the tree that the Fabulous Royal Poinciana Hotel, built by Flagler to lure the wealthy from all over the earth, takes its name.With the completion of the "Ponce," there exist side by side two worlds of striking contrast, one characterized by extravagant luxury, the other by the duress of pioneer life. Jenny Totten comes to know each of these worlds and is forced ultimately to make a choice between them and between the two men by whom they are personified for her.
language: English
title: The Flame Tree: Florida in the Fabulous Days of the Royal Poinciana Hotel
titlecomplete: The Flame Tree: Florida in the Fabulous Days of the Royal Poinciana Hotel
ratings_count: 30
publisher: Florida Classics Library