The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1921-04-11
AS Others. See It
THE FLOWERS AND BIRDS OF FLORIDA
tBy Moses FoIsom0

BY Moses FoIsom.)
Florida is known as The state of flowers. and
We can have them in every month. constant
procession OF beauty and fragrance around the
year. but not making the best Of our
opportunities with native and imported varieties.
There are not enough of the towering trees,
shrubs, plants and vines in the parks and home
grounds OF the cities and towns Of Florida. Flor
icuturC means refinement. Fruits and yege-
tables may be cultivated with degree Of
pleasure. livc stock demand and receive
sympathy aud tender care. but flowers are at
tended with reverence. Parks and home grounds
attractive with flowers add grace and charm and
get favorable comment from every passerby.
Plant flowers to the right OF YOU to the left of
you, in front of you and to the rear of you, and
yours will he nowery path. u
Tallahassee sets au example for other places.
for the capital city of Florida is of the
flower gardens. The garden in the Supreme
Court grounds is a beauty spot The wistera
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
fragrance. and lilies such as Bermuda knew not
Of and the jasmine the myrtle and star flower
And all about accomplishing forest growths
in which the clinging Spanish augments
the natural beauty of the oaks the bays and
magnoas, with long stretches of Towering dog
wood and veritable of honeysuckle and
thorn bushes and lantana | have often
dered why flowers were not shipped north from
Tallahassee by the load under refrigeration
the same other products of the farm.
The natural flora of Florida is abundant and
varied, and in going about one must look up.
we'll down, for there flowers in tall trees
and tiny buds and blooms peek out everywhere
in the profuseness OF green on the ground, often
Il tange Of vines and shrubbery. The palmetto.
Of course. is everywhere, adding beauty and
cozness to the landscape. A popularity of the
palmetto is that it has its greatest diameter
when it is Young, when it bulges out with eafy
stems, which in time fall off and a clean and
uniform and barkless trunk is left, with feather
buster like top high in the air. The ferns are
fond of them and often cluster about them with
fronds looking if set in The pine tree.
too, is always in evidence in Florida
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 but the pine, yet there are more varieties
of trees in our state than in any other in the
Union, having in the south part many kinds APP
preaching the mahogany in value The cypress
is here with its strange knees and the water
and live oaks glorious trees.
There trees in Florida not known to botan
lists anywhere else in the world.
The birds of Florida at one time included many
species and were multitudinous in number The
poi hunter and the call for plumes and feathers
ia the millinery trade have depleted the supply
The little green paraquet has entirely dis
appeared. and other varieties arc going, regard
less of the established fact they maintain the
balance oi nature in the struggle against insect
life so destructive TO vegetaton. 1t is the opinion
of experts that were the birds to suddenly dis
appear the cultivated gardens and fields could