^^^:^^= —- Q^ 



BPBINC AT IIIK NOKTH AND AT THE BODTIL 



lone: trailing moss ; the "hawthorn's top" is a mass of snowy white, and the red jas 

 mine, clambering over many a bush and tree, gives them the appearance of having 

 been dipped in blood. In the course of this month, (March,) oleanders, roses, verbe- 

 nas, geraniums, and a great variety of garden flowers, are in the perfection of their 

 beauty. The roses ! the roses I To see the Lamarque, Cloth of Gold, Ophir, Bank- 

 sids, and other tea scented varieties climbing over })iilar.s and even above second story 

 windows, completely loaded with flowers, is a sight which one must liimself behold, 

 in order to appreciate its splendor. Lettuce, beets, Irish potatoes, peas and strawber- 

 ries now appear on the table. Beans, melons, corn, and all kinds of vegetables are 

 growing rapidly. And, to tell the whole stoiy, rattlesnakes, lizards, and other reptiles 

 now come out of their w inter quarters. Alligators arc seen sporting in the rivers and 

 creeks, carrying their black noses above water, or basking in the sun upon the marshy 

 shore. 



In April, spring is thoroughly established. The first crop of figs attains its full 

 size. Grass makes a fine growth in low, moist situations, but elsewhere, — if per- 

 chance the deep, dry sand allows it to grow at all, it soon withers away. High winds, 

 frequent showers, and sudden changes, characterize this month at the south as well as 

 the north, though, of course, the range of temperature is much higher. The sun at 

 mid-day becomes so warm that the traveler from the north begins to long for cooler 

 weather. 



From this rapid survey, it appears that there is much to interest a stranger in spring 

 at the south. It is no indifferent thing to look for the first time upon the cypress wa- 

 ving high its plumes of delicate, larch-like foliage, or the stately magnolia, or the 

 live oak, resembling, often, the largest elms of New England, and the branches of all 

 these trees draped with the long, grey moss of these latitudes, from two to fifteen feet 

 in length, and swaying in the wind ; or the sago, palmetto, and date trees, indicating 

 the neighborhood of the tropics. Nor does it lessen the interest with which one be- 

 holds these scenes to reflect that while he is surrounded by such beautiful verdure, by 

 flowers, and birds, and summer air, his friends at the north are still shivering in the 

 midst of snow and ice and dreary storms. 



Turning now from spring at the south, to speak of the same season at the north, I 

 need not apprise the reader that here a Avinter precedes the spring. lie whoso 

 lot has been cast where snow storms prevail during five months of the year, 

 ■where the mercury falls to 20° below zero, and where, as some one remarked near the 

 close of a long Avinter, " thermometers give out, and have to be laid up for repairs," 

 such an one, certainly, need not bo told that we have a winter at the north. 



But there is, at length, an end to winter even here. The first, though quite re- 

 mote indication of returning spring is seen in the increasing length of the day. This 

 is perceptible in February, and still more so in March. The sun takes daily a wider 

 circuit through the heavens ; and though winter still reigns, and rages too, there is a 

 peculiar glow in the sky, especially at morning and evening, which tells of a mere 

 ial season approaching. Often, indeed, during the month of March, when the cold 

 are at rest, the sun rapidly melts the snow from the south side of the roofs of 



