The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1881-08-02

In quiet grace on the surface of the water.
Near the margin we find the dark-blue
Cluster-lily, with heart-shaped leaves, like
those of the Lily of the Nile; and near,
still another kind, . delicate white lily.
Near little stream which has its source
in Lake Overstreet, is found rare and
beautiful specimen of the lily. It's leaves
are wide and long, and in the month of
July, it sends up a stalk about twenty
inches in height, and on the top of this,
appears a cluster of blooms, sometimes
seven in number, the most daintily formed
and fragrant of all the lilies.
Around US on every side we behold
myrids of flowers of every shape and col
or, many of them unknown and unnamed,
yet SO beautiful and fragrant that they
would be objects of interest in any gar
den. A devout worshiper at the shrine of
Flora would linger in rapture of admi-
ration among the flowers of the fields and
forests of Leon.
And the gardens Where shall we be-
gin to linn with our unskilledl pen the
glorious beauty of our flower gardens
A tourist in Spain wrote boastfully of the
Japonicas found there, which attained the
height of trees. In Tallahassee Japon-
lea tree is no rare sight, and there is one
here that was removed from Virginia,
that has reached the venerable age of
seventy-fve years, and the height of twelve
feet. And for perfection of bloom, our
Japonicas are not excelled anywhere. We
know one tree, fine specimen of the
double white, which at the time of the
freeze last winter, had on it about five
hundred blooms. There are many and
beautiful varieties Of the Japonica found
here The white, the crimson, the scarlet,
the striped, and one, double, rose-color,
which enjoys the enviable distinction of a
delicious fragrance.
Where beyond the limits of Eden were
ever such Roses grown as flourish here :?
Growing out of doors all the year round,
they thrive and bloom, and bloom, and
bloom, with magnifcence of size, per-
fection of color and deliciousness Of odor
that makes us wonder if it was not here,
in the early days of Spanish adventure,
that they first received the soubriquet of
"Queen of Flowers"
There is rose-bush in garden in Tai
lahassee which is twelve feet in height,
and the diameter of the trunk, to the
height of four feet, measures twelve
inches.
Then the domesticated Lilies These
fair and fragrant flowers, always regarded
as symbols of purity, employed by the
Savior himself as an illustration of perfec-
tion. "They toll not neither do they spin,
yet solomon in all his glory was not ar
rayed like one of these" All the known
varieties are found here in great perfec-
ction; one single stalk of the white, with
crimson stripes, sometimes bearing a clus-
ter of ten large flowers.
The Jessamine is found here, in eight
distinct varieties, generally growing in
perfect safety out of doors through the
whole year. Gersniums, Pinks, Verbenas,
Towering vines of all kinds and varieties,
the many ANIMALS and perennials-nearly
every flower in florists catalogue, can
be safely and satisfactorily grown here
and any one familiar with our gardens
would be amused to read the descriptions
of the size and height of plants, as given
by reliable horticulturists. Mr.. Wick de-
scribes the Mira6ilis JaIapa or "Four
| O'clock as sometimes attaining the
height of two and half feet I" We know
one, a specimen of the magenta-colored,
which attained the height of seve,a feet
with a corresponding breadth.
Among the many plants which adorn
our gardens, the most remarkable, per
haps, is the Century-plant, with its long
coarse, pale-green, sword-shaped leaves
and it's peculiarity of blooming, not once
every hundred years as tradition teaches
but once only, and that after the age Of
about twenty-five years. From the cen
tire of the cluster of leaves, strong stalk
shoots up, sometimes thirty feet in the
course of six weeks, little limbs project
from the sides, bearing clusters of queer,
coarse-ooking, yellow flowers, the whole
plant presenting striking resemblance to
an immense candelabrum. But the rapid
growth of the mammoth stalk and the
multitude of flowers soon exhausts the vi
tality of the plant, and having bloomed
once, it invariably dies.
Among the shrubs most common we
may mention, the Olesnder, both white
and pink, Syringas, Deutzias, Spireas
Daphnes, and, last. but not least, the
Woods Hydrangea, with its splendid trus
ses of white flowers, more than foot in
length.
| The Cactus finds here a genial home
the most remarkable specimen, the Night
blooming Cereus, being no novelty with
rs.
Apart from the refining influence o.
flowers, and the grace and beauty they
add to our homes, and their many sttrac
tons from an aesthetic point of view, they
| y,ossasa othar claima tn our snac;al care