SOUTH CAROLINA 181 



twice a year; but seldom ripen the second time. The 

 fig-tree bears 3 and 4 times, in May and June, Sep- 

 tember and October. There are a few European olive- 

 trees, which do well and yield heavily, but they have 

 not yet learned how to conserve the fruit properly. 



Wheat is sown in September and cut in June. Corn 

 is planted in April, and harvested in August. 



Although the soil about Charleston, mainly a shell- 

 sand, promises little fertility, there is no lack of re- 

 markable instances showing the rapid progress of veg- 

 etation in the same. Warmth and moisture do what 

 the thin soil of itself could not. In a garden outside 

 the city there are pointed out many lemon-trees which 

 at the seige of 1780 were cut down to the ground, and 

 yet by February 1784 had shot up 12 ft. high and 3-4 

 inches thick. A Tallow-tree (Croton sebiferum L.) 

 which had met the same fate, has grown since to 15 

 ft. and more. The China-root, or ' Smilax China,' 

 here in one year runs out 40-50 feet, winding about 

 the trunks and branches of trees. Often in the woods 

 grape-vines are to be seen which strike their roots in 

 the earth, indeed, but above are slung about the top 

 of some high tree, otherwise swinging quite loose. A 

 climbing shrub of this sort is the so-called ' Supple 

 Jack,' of which I have seen neither leaves nor blooms. 

 It grows a woody, pliant stem, one to two fingers 

 thick and 40-50-60 ft. long, which is often to be found 

 hung from the end of a strong limb, and it is not easily 

 to be guessed how it got there from the ground. I 

 measured a few vines of the Bignonia sempervirens, 

 which were also of the thickness of a thumb, and in 

 length 40 and 50 feet ; these may be split without 

 difficulty from end to end. 



