138 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



cold winter-weather * is nothing uncommon in this 

 uncertain climate, often holding for a good many days. 

 Three years ago the Neus river at New-Bern (in lati- 

 tude 35 south) was so hard frozen that men and 

 animals could cross on the ice. 



The Iris verna L., called Violet here, the Viola 

 pedata and palmata, Gomphrena fiava, Lupimis peren- 

 nis, Sanguinaria canadensis, Sarracenia lutea and pur- 

 purea, Cypripedium Calceolus, Azalea viscosa, Kalmia 

 latifolia, angiustifolia, and glauca, and other plants 

 seem, from the partial accounts I had, to belong among 

 the first to appear in the spring, blooming towards the 

 end of February or the beginning of March. The re- 

 markable Dioncea Muscipula L. (Fly-trap) is at home 

 in this region, but seems to be known to very few of 

 the inhabitants. And besides it, there are many rare 

 plants to reward the pains of the future investigator. 



In this thin sandy soil, corn is planted 6 ft. apart, 

 A bushel of seed therefore is enough for 10-12 acres 

 of land, yielding some 12-15 fold, and more on new 



* The severity of the winters is often strangely different as 

 between regions north and south. Linnaeus observes of the 

 celebrated hard winters of 1739 and 1741, that in those years 

 in Norway, beyond the Alps, there was a very mild winter; 

 that in the years 1745 and 1746 when Sweden had a very 

 passable winter, there was at Montpellier, on the contrary, 

 severe cold ; and that in the winter of 1735 and 1736, when 

 Sweden and Holland had very moderate weather, at New 

 York in America brandy froze in the cellars. It was likewise 

 with the winters 1779-80, and 1783-84, which were uncommonly 

 hard throughout the middle and southern colonies of North 

 America, but in Nova Scotia and Canada were as unusually 

 mild. Similarly opposite conditions have several times been 

 remarked as between the southern coasts of England and the 

 northern parts of Scotland. 



