SCHOPF AMERICAN TRAVELS. 



is not yet settled, but from its easier cultivation and greater produc- 

 tivity this should be preferable to both the others. 



[11, 270-287.] Durinof these cold days of January and February, 

 in the neighborhood of Charleston not an indigenous plant was to be 

 seen in bloom ; for in this climate spring does not really come before 

 the middle of March or the beginning of April. But in sundry gar- 

 dens the following European plants might be found greening and 

 blooming : 



Alsine media Lamium am pie. vie aide, Leontodon Taraxacum, 

 Rumex crispus & acetosa, Poa annua, Viiica dioica, and Sonchus 

 arvensis. Of garden flowers there were blooming at this time nar- 

 cissuses and jonquils. Also the orange-trees, which are everywhere 

 in the houses and in the open in gardens, seemed to be standing the 

 severe weather pretty well ; they were full of fruit and burgeons. B it 

 often they are frozen, and this is not seldom the case even to the 

 south, at Pensacola in Florida. There it has been found at last by ex- 

 perience that the best means of guarding these trees against the in- 

 jurious effect of great winter cold or northwest weather, is to take 

 away the earth from their roots at the approach of winter, exposing 

 the whole tree so that all its parts may be subject to the same temper- 

 ature. Not one tree died that was handled thus ; but those from which 

 the earth had not been removed from the roots cracked and died. A 

 palm tree, 7-8 feet high, standing out in a garden, suffered from 

 this weather, and its leaves hung slack. Several other trees from 

 W'armer regions, such as Croton schiferum, Sapindus saponaria, etc., 

 which hitherto had withstood the cold well in the open, it was fonnd 

 would this time hardly escape damage. These and other tender plants 

 which Carolina has in common with the West Indies, either naturally 

 or from transplantation, thrive only on the sea-coast where, in com- 

 parison with the inland country, milder and more temperate weather 

 prevails generally. . . , . 



Pleasant regions or diverting changes of prospect are not to be 

 found about Charleston ; the whole landscape is flat and sandy; tracts 

 next the sea and the rivers are swampy. The greater part of the fore- 

 country is taken up in pine-forest. Of these pines the following four 

 varieties are the commonest. 



I. The Pitch-pine.* It has 3 needles in each sheath, always 

 assembled tuft-wise at the extreme end of the branch, the rest 

 of the twig being bare if the tree is mature. Young trees, two and 

 three years old, have needles 12-15 inches long, which stand upright 

 at the top of the trunk and give it a peculiar and splendid appearance. 

 If the trees are older the needles are from 7-9 inches long, and each 

 needle shows 3 sharp, slightly dented edges ; the outer side is rounded. 



Pinus palustris. Mill. Diiroi, P't II, No. 8. v. Wangonheim, Beytrage, 73. 



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