of that hright bluish grocn which j'oa soo in the large bottles in your drug Btores by gas- 

 light. The linietstone is still more brilliant ; it is^ a rich display of iirisinatic colors, dazzling 

 the eye, but the predominant color is always that bright, lovely emerald. I had a fine bath 

 in that noble basin. The temperature of the water seemed to me to be about G(P. Some 

 very large trout are found in it. If there was a good road, and more convenient acconimo- 

 dation, I have no doubt it would soon be a place of resort, in winter, for such as, like myself, 

 deem your northern winters rather too trying. 



Of fruit and fruit trees I have seen but little in Florida. Orange groves are numerous 

 enough, but they are most of the bitter, wild fruit. In southern Georgia a small insect is 

 playing great havoc among the plantations, but here it seems to be unknown, at least no 

 body could tell one anything about it. Peaches would be in groat abundance if the 

 inhabitants would go to the trouble of planting them. Fig-trees are more cultivated, but 

 you can ride over scores of miles without such a ttseless thing as a fruit tree. Cotton is all 

 in all. Strange to say, in a climate where good fruit would be such an effectual preventive 

 of bilious diseases, no fruit, and few, very few vegetables, are found. 



The soil of Florida is almost uniformly sandy, very sandy, with substrata of marl and 

 phosphatic limestone, in the hammocks. Vegetation is most luxuriant where this substance 

 prevails. It is almost the only building stone found over the country. I am going back 

 to Ocala, and from there to some plantations, till your snow is gone. Ocala is a most 

 beautiful little town, as far as location and scenery are concerned. The walks all round are 

 splendid, in the midst of the magnolias and palmettos ; with the exception of those 

 hammocks, all the rest is one vast forest of broad-leaved pine ; some lakes and very few 

 streams and plantations — few and far between. But the mildness of the climate is such 

 that we sleep with open windows. The thermometer for a week past has been up to from 

 60° to 80° at noon, with a pure sky and calm, balmy weather. It has frozen this winter 

 in Florida. Oleanders are nearly killed, but I see no harm done to evergreens. 



Gossip. — A horsechestnut tree in full flower has been not inaptly called a giant's nosegay, 

 and by another a gigantic hyacinth. The manner in which it scatters its flowers on the 

 grass, and the comparative uselessness of its timber and fnjit, make it an excellent emblem 

 of ostentation. Its wood is recommended for water-pipes that are to be kept constantly 

 under ground. In Turkey, the nuts are ground and mixed with horse food, especially when 

 the horses are broken winded ; in the natural state, goats, sheep, and deer are fond of them. 



The flour is said to strengthen bookbinders' paste. Various tests as to what constitutes 



civilizalion, have been thought of. By one historian it is said nations that coin money may 

 be considered civilized ; another that hospitals for the insane, which were found in Mexico 

 at the conquest, give that character to a nation. A new one is proposed — that we call that 

 State of the Union the most civilized which has the most pleasure carriages and pianos ; 

 Ohio will rank high, she has taxed 2,731 pianos the last year. Gentility was defined 

 "keeping a gig;" in Ohio there was no fewer than 261,849 pleasure carriages and wagons, 

 valued at $5,530,863 ! Is it any wonder, ! Ohio Farmer, from whom we derived the above, 



that butter is scarce ? Dioclesian gave the first example to the world of a resignation of 



supreme power and a throne. The amusements of letters and of devotion, which afford so 

 many resources in solitude, were incapable of fixing his attention ; but he had preserved, 

 or at least soon recovered a taste for the most innocent as well as natural pleasures, and his 

 leisure hours were employed in building, planting, and gardening. He rejected a solicitation 

 to resume the imperial purple, with a smile of pity, calmly observing, if he could show 

 Maximian the cabbages he had planted with his own hands, he should no longer be urged 



to relinquish the enjoyment of happiness for the pursuit of power. The melancholy 



exhibited by some of our exchanges in their appeals to their subscribers, is often very 



