The homes of the settled population of Jacksonville are very beautiful, and are built in pretty fanciful styles--no sameness nor dull uniformity anywhere. Some are surrounded by blooming gardens, for here the gardens bloom all the year round; as one flower fades and falls another takes its place, so the floral army is always “in position.” Some are covered with creeping plants and vines, others buried in orange-groves or embowered in shrubs, oleanders, and magnolia trees. There is no unsightly or incongruous feature anywhere in this lovely city; it is literally composed of handsome hotels, elegant dwellings, and smiling gardens. The shops are congregated on one spot, instead of being scattered in odd corners throughout the city, and are situated in a long line on Bay Street, where you may enjoy a pleasant promenade and transact your business at the same time. In these shops you will find every possible commodity of merchandise, from the baby’s teething coral to the grandfather’s gravestone, for such _articles de luxe_ are sometimes wanted even in Florida. A brisk trade is carried on in all kinds of Floridian curiosities in this beautiful semi-tropical city. You may buy bracelets and earrings of delicately-tinted sea beans, set in silver or gold. Some say that these beans are the fruit of a leguminous plant, which drops from the pod into the sea; others suggest that they are washed over from the vines which grow along the shores of the West Indies; but wherever they come from they are here in abundance and in great variety of colours and shapes--some are opaque, some red, some a rich brown, and some (the choicest specimens) are smoothly polished and speckled like a leopard’s skin. Here also may be found some beautiful specimens of Indian shell-work, and graceful plumes of dried grasses, either natural or dyed in all the colours of the rainbow. The ladies wear palmetto hats trimmed with leaves or feathery flowers made from these grasses--quite a new and extremely elegant style of millinery. But alligators’ teeth are mostly in demand; gentlemen wear them on their watch-chains, as studs, as buttons, even as ornaments to their umbrellas and walking-sticks; the ladies wear them set in all kinds of fanciful ornaments. A lovely molar set in gold drops from her pretty ear, or a row of sharp incisors coil round her wrist and grin from their gold setting, as though they have just come from the dentist; or they twine, half smothered in coral tongues or trellis-work of gold, about her neck. Situated on this street, too, are the principal banks and wholesale mercantile houses, the proprietors of which are so energetic and enterprising they bid fair to make this the chief commercial city in the state. The Aston Buildings, where every possible information concerning anything or everything may be obtained--a collection of legal, shipping, and insurance offices--are situated on the corner of Bay and Hogan Streets. Close by, Mr. Greenleaf has quite a museum of