The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-06-11
FLOWERS AND BIRDS OF FLORIDA

NNNi AhOhbh a SOHoIuhI III OCCoSlOh
o. beauty and fragrance around the
year, but we are not making the
best of our opportunities with native
and imported varieties.
There are not enough of the flow
ering trees, shrubs, plants and vines
in the parks and home grounds Of the
cities and towns of Florida. Flor
iculture means refinement. Fruits
and vegetables may be cultivated with
some degrees of pleasure, live stock
demand and receive our sympathy
and tender care, but flowers are at
tended with reverence. Parks and
home grounds attractive with flowers
add grace and charm and get favor
able comment from every passer-by.
Plant flowers to the right of you
left Of you, front of you, and rear
Of you. and yours will literally be a
+, flowery path.
+, Tallahassee sets an example for
other places, for the capital city is
one of flower gardens. The w;staria
vine is riot Of beauty in the trees
and trailing over the verandas. roses
are to be seen, each in season with
wide range of size and color and Of
fragrance, and lilies such as Ber-
muda knows not Of, and the jasmine
the myrtle and star flower. And all
about are encompassing the forest
growths in which the clinging Span
ish moss augments the natural beau.
ty of the oaks. the bays and magnol
las, with long stretches Of Towering
dogwood and veritable masses Of
honeysuckle and thorn bushes and
lantana. I have often wondered why
flowers were not shipped north from
Tallahassee by the carload under re-
frigeration the same as other prod
ucts OF tne farm
The natural fora of Florida is
abundant and varied, and in going
about one must look up as well as
down, for there are flowers in tall
trees and tiny buds and blooms peek
out everywhere in the profuseness OF
green on the ground, often tangle
Of vines and shrubbery. The palmet-
to of course Is everywhere adding
beauty and coziness to the landscape
A popularity Of the palmetto is that
il has its greatest diameter when Il
!! is young, when 1t bulges out with
ieafy stems, which in time fall of and
a clean, uniform and barkless trunk
is left, with a feather buster like
top high in the air. The ferns are
fond Of them and often cluster about
them with fronds looking as il SET
in vases. The tree pine is always In
: evidence.
LET other bards their harps attune
To sing of gold and courts and
kings,
But leave to me the voice Of June,
The music that the pine tree sings.
One might think there was no
other tree in Florida yet there are
more varieties Of trees in our state
than in any other state in the Union,
having in the south part many kinds
approaching the mahogany in value.
The cypress is here with their strange
knees and the water and live oaks
are glorious trees. There are trees
In Florida not known to botanists
anywhere else.
The birds Of Florida at one time
included many species and multitud-
inous in number. The pot hunter
and the call for plumes and feathers
in the millinery trade have depleted
the supply. The little green parque:
has entirely disappeared and other
varieties are going, regardless of the
established fact that birds maintain
/. the balance of nature in the strug-
gle against insect life so destructive
! to vegetation: it's the opinion of ex-
perts that were the birds to sudden
ly disappear the cultivated gardens
and fields could not survive the raw
ages Of insect pests and famine would
face the world There are many
kinds of birds, yet found in Florida,
more in the southern part than any
where else. with rockeries populace
with feathered creatures.
The federal government has a doz.
en- bird reservations in the state. a