38 THE FLORIST. 



totally unacquainted witli tliem, and can seldom aid your inquiry 

 even by description. The adventurer rarely finds any one willing 

 to accompany him ; or if he does, is often left, through their timidity 

 and haste to be at home again, to pursue his way alone. If, how- 

 ever, he has acquired the hardihood derived from experience, and is 

 well acquainted with the peculiarities of the country, he may pursue 

 his course without fear ; and when he has triumphed by his own un- 

 assisted energy over danger and difficulty, will find^ in the feeling of 

 independence and confidence in his own powers, an ample compen- 

 sation for any unpleasantness which may at first seem to arise from 

 his solitary position. The thought that he may perish by the linger- 

 ing death of hunger, should any accident befal him to prevent his 

 return, in places where no one would ever seek for him, or if seek- 

 ing, would hardly find him, deters him not ; nor, indeed, does it often 

 enter his mind, when, after much danger, he has reached the top of 

 some lofty clifi", or dived to the bottom of some deep, dark dell, which 

 the foot of man has never entered, and finds his exertions rewarded 

 by a harvest of new and beautiful acquisitions. 



" At the lower end of the valley a fire had been raging, which had 

 left the bare trunks of the trees standing destitute of their bark, and 

 in many instances half charred. In this state the wood is much 

 altered in grain and colour, and is improved for working purposes, 

 but becomes unserviceable as fuel, and is known by the name of 

 Pellin. In the uninhabited forests of the Andes, fires often break 

 out from causes altogether unknown, and consume every thing above 

 them, till they reach the low and impenetrable thickets which border 

 the limits of the perpetual snow. After these conflagrations no lofty 

 trees ever grow again; but a dense underwood springs up around 

 the few scattered trees that have escaped. The change which takes 

 place in the vegetation after these catastrophes, in all parts of Ame- 

 rica, is very remarkable. In Pennsylvania, the few remnants of the 

 original forest which the axe has spared present the appearance of 

 a park clear of underwood. But should a portion be destroyed by 

 fire, Ehododendrons spring up, especially in the mountains, making 

 a beautiful appearance when in flower, but forming an impenetrable 

 thicket. Where the trees have been entirely destroyed by the raging 

 element, the Scrub Oak makes its appearance, an annoyance to the 

 sportsman, and the fiirmer's wor.-t enemy; for its roots run so deep, 

 and are so productive of shoots, that it is with the greatest difficulty 

 that they can be extirpated. Still more striking are these changes 

 in the warmer countries of this part of the world. In Cuba, a 

 fearfully stinging arborescent Nettle [Urtica haccifera), the odious 

 Psychotria, the Pepper-plant, and other unsightly weeds, take pos- 

 session of the ground wherever a wood is burned ; and, unless over- 

 come by careful culture, an entangled and impervious growth of 

 thorny Smilaces, Ipomasas, and other trailing plants, establishes itself. 

 The transmutations which take place in the Andes of Peru and the 

 virgin-forests of IMaynas, from a similar cause, will be described else- 

 where. In Chili, the powerfully - stinging Loasse, with upright or 

 creeping stems, are the first to make their appearance after a con- 



