FROM CARLISLE TO THE OHIO 227 



trees luxuriating in a fat soil cast wider shadows. Be- 

 fore reaching Bedford, the Juniata has to be crossed 

 five times ; the last crossing is over a neat wooden 

 bridge. We passed several houses and a mill. 



The blue magnolia or mountain magnolia (Magnolia 

 acuminata Linn.) was one of the more conspicuous 

 trees peculiar to this mountain region. They call it 

 here the cucumber tree, because its long cones, before 

 they ripen and open, are in shape somewhat like that 

 fruit. The seeds, seed-receptacles, and in less degree 

 the bark and twigs have in common with other mag- 

 nolias a very pleasant bitterness of taste, and the seeds 

 are often used in bitter spirituous infusions. This tree 

 is distinguished from its relatives by its habitat ; it is 

 found only in dry spots in the mountains, and bears 

 more cold than other magnolias. The ripe seed-vessels 

 have a pleasant odor and taste something like the cala- 

 mus. The unripe fruit blackens the fingers and stains 

 the knife. 



Bedford is a little town, but a little town in a great 

 wilderness may easily please without beauty. Here 

 one has come 96 miles, or not quite half the way from 

 Carlisle to Pittsburg. The place is regularly planned, 

 has a court-house, and is the county-seat of the ex- 

 tensive Bedford county, its namesake and as yet very 

 little peopled. There are two houses of worship, for 

 Lutherans and Presbyterians ; these cannot be called 

 churches, being only wooden huts. In the war before 

 the last a fort was built here, partly to control the in- 

 vading Indians and partly to aid the operations di- 

 rected towards the Ohio ; this fort was in connection 

 with the old Fort Cumberland on the Potomack, 20 

 miles south of here, and Fort Shirley on the Juniata. 



