SCHOPF AMERICAN TRAVELS. 



September and October. There are a few European olive-trees, which 

 do well and yield heavily, but they have not yet learned how to con- 

 serve 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 remarkable instances showing the rapid 

 progress of vegetation 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 siege of 1780 were cut 

 down to the ground, and yet by February, 1784, had shot up twelve 

 feet high and 3-4 inches thick. A Tallow-tree (Croton sebiferum L.) 

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

 ing quite loose. A clinging 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 feet 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. 



[II, 306-307.] In the middle of February, one small plant ex- 

 cepted,* not a bloom was to be found on James Island, although in 

 other winters (mild as this was severe) one plant or another is at 

 this season in bloom. I looked about to no purpose also for the "Cab- 

 bage-tree," which was once plentiful there, but now is as good as 

 exterminated, because everywhere cut down during the war for forti- 

 fications and bulwarks. But there are a few still left on Morris and 

 other neighboring islands, whither I had no occasion to go. 



East Florida. 



[II, 379-383.] All about the town [St. Augustine] the sandy soil 

 was thickly set with a low, creeping palm {Corypha minor L.f) The 



* Houslonia pusilla Radix fibrosa, tenuis. Caiilis pollicaris, acute tetraponus, setuHs 

 paucis (microscopio tantum observandis) scaber, simplex vel subramosus, terminatus ramis 

 duobus et pedunculo interinedio. ?ut hoc tantum. Folia opposita, petiolata, ovata, ba.-i apiceque 

 acuta, glabriuscula, margine reflexo ciliata. Petioli longitudine fere foliorum. membrana laxa 

 coadunati. Pedunculus terminalis, caula saepe longior, tetragonus, erectjis. Flos longe minor, 

 quam Houstoni;e crerulese, erectus. Calyx parvus, basi heinispha.'ricui, quadrifidus; laciniis 

 lanceolatis, acutis, erectis. Corolla 'nfundibuliformis. Tubus calyce duplo et quod excurrit 

 longior, medio incrassatus. Limbus tubo brevior, quadripartitus: laciniis ovatis, acutis. 

 SfT'iitta 4 in rred'o tubi corollae: Anther?e flavs. Germc7i compressum. Stigma bifidum. In 

 habitus this is the Houstonia cccrnlea, and the Moom is so similar that I take it to be a variety 

 of Huitstonia, although I have not seen the fruit. 



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