UNITED STATES. 297 
coming very near, as does the whole plant, to our Solomon's Seal 
(P. multiflorum) (Convallaria multifl., L.); Smilacina racemosa, not uu- 
frequent in fruit, which resembles small red currants. I also found 
what I have little doubt was S. stellata, with clasping leaves, but the 
fruit which I have seen in Pennsylvania had dropped from the speci- 
mens, Helianthus decapetalus abounded, all the heads were rayless : 
are the rays deciduous, or sometimes wanting in this as in many other 
Composite? Clematis virginiana, Apocynum androsemifolium, a species 
of Lonicera, and many Ferns, were remarked,—amongst the latter the 
common but beautiful Adiantum pedatum was unusually fine and 
abundant. 
Quebec, September 27th.—Arrived here in the fine steam-boat Mon- 
treal, in eighteen hours from the latter city, having been forced to 
lay-to near Trois Rivières, on account of the fog. The weather to-day 
was very unfavourable for seeing the country we were traversing, the 
morning very dull and overcast, with a great deal of rain during the 
day, the air extremely damp, chilly, and disagreeable throughout. The 
banks of the St, Lawrence on each side are bold, rocky, and for the 
most part beautifully wooded, for a long way above Quebec, and 
uearly to the city itself, beyond which the country becomes flatter, 
less wooded, and fertile. The timber, as far as could be judged of 
from the vessel as we shot rapidly down the river, appeared of medium 
size, with single trees of apparently large dimensions, for the most 
part hard-wooded or deciduous, but at intervals clumps or entire groves 
of pine crowned the elevated banks, seemingly Hemlocks (Pinus 
Canadensis), and probably the Weymouth Pine (P. Strobus), which 
here finds a congenial climate, and is very common about Quebec: 
Near the city, at Carouge, and at the Coves, the river-banks recede 
into deep and richly-wooded hollows of great beauty, and of a luxuri- 
ance I did not expect to find in this ungenial latitude. The trees - 
were allof the hard-wood kind, and their foliage showed more of the 
fading tints of autumn than at Montreal, although on the whole still 
pretty fresh and green. 
For magnificence of situation Quebec has perhaps few equals; but 
accustomed as I had been to the gayer architecture and busier aspect 
of American towns, there was to myself an air of gloom and desertion 
about the place which the miserable state of the weather was ill fitted 
to dispel. The streets are wretchedly narrow, crooked, and dirty, 
VOL. II. 2a 
