In harmony also with the theme, the human figure is absent from the
sculpture, save in the caryatids of the porches and the groups
supporting the tall finials. Fruits and flowers, interwoven in heavy
garlands and overflowing from baskets and urns, carry out the idea of
profuse abundance. The great dome, larger than the dome of either St.
Peter's at Rome or the Pantheon at Paris, is itself an overturned fruit
basket, with a second latticed basket on its top. The conception of
profusion becomes almost barbaric in the three pavilioned entrances,
flanked on either side by the tall finials suggesting minarets. Here the
Oriental influence of the architectural form, the mosque, becomes most
pronounced, changing to French again in the caryatid porches.

Altogether, the Palace of Horticulture is a beautiful building, but
rather hard to see properly from the ground. From an elevation, where it
appears more as a whole, it is far more effective. Curiously, it
photographs better than any other building here, save the Fine Arts
Palace, but in actual view it hardly lives up to the pictures. Perhaps
this is because the comparatively small portions of the structure seen
between the trees near-by are dwarfed by the huge dome, while in
photographs the camera emphasizes the lower and nearer sections and
reduces the proportions of the dome.

The exhibit housed under the great dome should not be passed by. A vivid
bit of the tropics is the Cuban display. Here, in an atmosphere
artificially heated and moistened to reproduce the steaming jungle, is
massed a splendid exhibit of those island trees and flowers that most of
us know only through pictures and stories of southern seas. Around the
central source of light, which is hidden under tropic vines, stands a
circle of royal palms; and planted thickly over the remaining space are