16 HISTORY OF THE [BOOK. i. 



derwood, and the trees which remained afforded a 

 shade that was cool, airy, and delicious. Of these, 

 some, as the papaw and the palmeto,J are, without 

 doubt, the most graceful of all the vegetable crea- 

 tion. Others continue to bud, blossom, and bear fruit 

 throughout the year. Nor is it undeserving notice, 

 that the foliage of the most part springing only from 

 the summit of the trunk, and thence expanding into 

 wide-spreading branches, closely but elegantly arran- 

 ged, every grove is an assemblage of majestic columns, 

 supporting a verdant canopy, and excluding the sun, 

 without impeding the circulation of the air. Thus 

 the shade, at all times impervious to the blaze, and 

 refreshed by the diurnal breeze, affords, not merely 

 a refuge from occasional inconveniency, but a most 

 wholesome and delightful retreat and habitation. 



Such were these orchards of the Sun, and woods of 

 perennial verdure ; of a growth unknown to the fri- 

 gid clime and less vigorous soil of Europe ; for what 

 is the oak compared to the cedar or mahogany, of each 

 of w^hich the trunk frequently measures from eighty 

 to ninety feet from the base to the limbs ? What Eu- 

 ropean forest has ever given birth to a stem equal to 

 that of the ceiba, which alone, simply rendered con- 



I The species here meant (for there are several) is the palmeto-royal, 

 or mountain-cabbage. Ligon mentions some, at the first settlement of 

 Barbadoes, about 200 feet in height; but Mr. Hughes observes, that the 

 highest in his time, in that island, was 134 feet. I am inclined to be- 

 lieve, that I have seen them in Jamaica upwards of 150 feet in height J 

 but it is impossible to speak with certainty without an actual measure- 

 ment. 



The wild cotton -tree. 



