You will remember that last year I gave a brief account of experiments with the foreign grape at Belleview, Fla. In a recent visit, March 25th, I again examined the vines of Mr. Penfield, and found them, considering the sterile soil, vigorous and healthy. The new growth, some two feet or more, was showing fruit, and I was told that last year they also had fruit, although it was the same year they were set. So far as I could ascertain, no one in the vicinity had ever had experience in the culture of the foreign grape under glass, or in Europe or California. I was told that a neighbor of Mr. Penfield had succeeded in grafting the foreign grape on the native vines, that there were few failures, and the grafted vines fruited well. My visit was too hurried to enable me to make a personal examination, which I had intended to do. There are many hundred acres of groves, and since I was here, one year ago, 75 acres more have been set with orange trees, also 38 acres to strawberries. Notwithstanding the cold weather of last year and some slight cold spells this, the development of the State has gone steadily forward, and at no previous time have the prospects for the future seemed more encouraging.

With all the talk about booms, and the denunciation against the State, the best answer is perhaps to quote the growth of Jacksonville which in 1886 showed a gain of 65 per cent, in her population. Her streets have been paved, many large brick blocks erected and with the exception of the beautiful Southern trees, and fruits, the city has a Northern aspect. The magnolias, live and water oaks, with the palms and Southern moss are unique and satisfying. On my return north, March 30th, I found that the market gardeners, or truck men, were having particularly hard times, the frost having caused a loss of more than $1,000,000 to the early vegetables in and around Charleston, S. C. This coming so soon after the earthquake, and to a people already impoverished, is peculiarly unfortunate. While waiting an hour for a train at the Ashley Junction, S. C, we encounter at least two dozen negro children of ages ranging from 5 to 15 with hands full of the beautiful Zephyran-thes Atamasco, for sale. At a request for roots, like arrows from a bow four started out and in ten minutes returned with several dozen. Their financial hunger was appeased by the payment of a nickel each and both parties were pleased with the bargain.

I spent a day in Baltimore and made a brief visit to the large and tasty grounds of A. Brackenridge & Co. We saw some particularly fine specimens of the various kinds of Retinospora, a plant whose rare beauty and entire hardiness should make it more common than it is. We had the luxury of seeing some 50,000, more or less, orchids. The whole stock appeared healthy and suggested the future possibilities in the various localities in the United States in the cultivation of this most exquisite creation of the floral world. People do not keep such a stock unless there is a demand for it, and we predict a lasting love for the cultivation of this wonderful exotic. Baltimore is a beautiful city, and we noted with surprise some pear trees 30 to 40 feet high, with trunks from 12 to 18 inches in diameter. There is nothing that I have ever seen in New England like it. Then too the various trees seem to grow better there than in New England and probably they may be more free from insect enemies. There is a neatness everywhere and plan about the buildings, particularly the dwellings, not to be seen in any other city that I have visited, that is very grateful to the eye, and adds much to the enjoyment of the visitor.

[The wife of the Editor of this magazine, who has an experience of thousands of miles of travel over this continent, contends that Jacksonville may claim in its Windsor Hotel, one of the best appointed in the United States. It is pleasant to hear from all quarters of the growing prosperity of this distant portion of the country. - Ed. G. M].