Year: 1879

Many varieties of tropical fruits and
flowers grow luxuriously in Florida,and
some fine specimens of orchids or air
plants are found there in abundance.
From the corridor upon which our room
opened at the Putnam House, banana
leaves at least four feet long with stalks
full eighteen feet high, We'd with the
orange branches in spreading their
beautiful foliage before the eye. The
shade trees of Palatka are the bitter
orange. They are loaded with bios.
SONS, with ripe fruit, and green fruit
just starting. The air is perfumed with
bitter orange blossoms. This fruit re-
quires ten months to mature from the
starting of the blossom. After ripening
it may remain upon the tree without de-


cay for nearly a year. These oranges
are quite large and of beautiful color;
they are not good to eat, but the orange
ade made from them is very healthful
and agreeable beverage, and the mar
malade into which they are manufacture
ed is palatable, and by many highly
relished as "preserve." The lemon
grows here in great profusion. The fig
natures in three months and bears two
crops year; the banana requires
three months. from the start to
ripen. The grape ripens about the Goth
of June. The pomegranate does well
in Florida, but little attention is paid to
its cultivation. There are some fine
specimens of cactus in Palatka. We
saw one nearly 20 feet high with stalk
full A inches in circumference. 1t was
growing close to an orange tree, and its
branches intertwined with the orange,
! sending its leaves even above the tree
and bearing the appearance of being
grated on it. The cedar is a beautiful
evergreen in Florida. The skilled
gardener trains it into various and fam
tastic shapes. There is a cedar in the
garden just across the way from the
hotel growing in rich fuxuriance, which
bears the form of beautifully shaped
basket standing upon table, its handle
raised and studded thick all over with
the tiny cedar leaf. Then there is the


magnolia tree; if not the giant it is the
belle of the Florida forest. In its per-
fection it is almost as large as the ordi-
nary chestnut tree of the North, and
and when in blossom in the month of
May it is covered with beautiful white
/ flowers. The Pride of India is large
tree and to be seen everywhere on this
peninsula; it affords splendid shade
along the streets in villages. The bios
som resembles that of the westeria in
color and size. The live oak with its
great outspreading branches, the pal
metto of unusual growth and curiously
braided surface, and the graceful pine
of immense height, trim and straight as
an arrow, may be classed as the kings
of the forest. The flowers in Florida
EN- race many varieties of the rose bios
soning the year round. The trumpet
vine, with IFS range-colored blossoms,
spreads its creepers everywhere, and the
wild morning glory, the yellow jessa-
mine and the olive-green moss consti-
tute feature of beauty in the forests.


Unlike the flowers of the East Indies,


which are generally without fragrance
though richly colored, those in Florida
have a rich and distinctive perfume.


The camelia, which is cultivated with


great care in our Conservatives at the


North, atttains here much larger
growth and blossoms in the gardens all


winter.-Cor. Troy Times. n ....f