218 



THE GARDENER'S MONTHLY 



[July, 



THE WILD FLOWERSOFSOUTHCAROLINA 



BY MRS. T>. W., SUMMERVILLE, S. C. 



A friends of yours has kindly sent us this 

 year's numbers of your Gardener's Monthly 

 which have given us the greatest pleasure, so 

 much so, that I am induced to write about a 

 pineland in South Carolina, little known to the 

 lovers of trees and flowers. For affections of 

 the throat and lungs our climate is truly won- 

 derful. Our Southern people fully appreciate 

 its restorative powers, and many reside here 

 who cannot live on the seaboard, Charleston 

 being our nearest city. 



This village is certainly unique, every house 

 built to suit the taste and fancy of its owner, 

 without the slightest consideration as to effect 

 or order, consequently the village covers a large 

 area. Immense pines tower straight and tall 

 above the cottages, while ever and anon you 

 come on noble groups of Live Oaks shadowing 

 the sandy soil. The white roads meander among 

 the houses and through the woods, crossing innu- 

 merable little streams surrounded by swamps 

 filled with lovely trees and flowers. In Spring and 

 early Summer, I mean from March till the end of 

 June, and again from the middle of September to 

 the first of November, there is a constant succes- 

 sion of wild flowers. I have succeeded in bringing 

 many into my garden. A Styrax about twenty 

 feet high, with a glossy leaf and small white, 

 sweet-scented flowers blooming all down the 

 stem, is very graceful. An Andromeda, I think, 

 with pendant racemes of white bells, each raceme 

 fully ten inches in length, is the most elegant 

 shrub I have ever seen, the blossoms without a 

 green leaf, covering the tree like snow. Another, 

 like a heath, with pink, rose colored, or white 

 waxy bells and a bright shining leaf about a foot 

 high. The Sarracenias are now in full beauty, 

 golden yellow, pale straw, deep red, dark brown, 

 yellow with brown throats, crimson hoods, 

 speckled with white, pale green, touched with 

 white or lined with spots like a snake. Some 

 tall and strong ; some slender as a shaft ; and 

 •others, tiny crimson hoods not longer than your 

 little finger, with pale yellow blossoms with 

 drooping heads beside them. 



Why is it you seek foreiijn countries for your 

 trees and flowers while you neglect the rare 

 beauties of your Southern clime ? I fancy the 

 dread of malaria has deterred many a one from 

 searching our woods; but round our pineland we 

 drive with impunity for many miles. For our- 

 selves, a spade, a trowel, and a terrible looking 



knife with a rough bag always are ready at the 

 bottom of the carriage ; and our coachman does 

 double duty, he drives and he digs. 



[The readers of the Gardener's Monthly 

 will, we feel sure, highly appreciate this bi'ief 

 sketch of South Carolina rural scenery, and 

 would enjoy as many more as the lady may feel 

 inclined to write. It is remarkable that though 

 most of the settled Southern States are among 

 the oldest in the Union, we know less of their gar- 

 dening, their wild scenery, and of their native 

 flowers, than of the newer portions. Even to the 

 mere botanist the wild woods of the South at this 

 time furnish more new plants than the unset- 

 tled portions of the Western Territories. As 

 we write these lines. Professors Gray and Sar- 

 gent, and Messrs. Canby and Redfield of the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, are 

 hunting for new and rare species in the Southern 

 Mountains. 



Communications from other friends such as 

 this with which we are now favored would also 

 be acceptable. — Ed. G. M.] 



MYSTERIES OF THE MAIL BAGS. 



BY WM. T. HARDING, UPPER SANDUSKY, OHIO. 



A few days ago the writer received per mail 

 several mysterious looking packages, bearing 

 the post mark of Ranch, Utah, the headquar- 

 ters of the famous plant collector, Mr. A. L. 

 Siler. Suspecting what they were, the prom- 

 ised gift of the above named gentleman, I 

 opened each parcel with great expectations, 

 and was well rewarded for my pains. 



Familiar as I am with the members of the 

 Cactus family, I was nevertheless surprised with 

 the peculiar features of some of their alliances 

 when first we met the other day. "Well, 

 well," exclaimed my astonished wife, " is it 

 possible such odd looking things exist either 

 here, or in any other land?" Truly may it be 

 said of them, " they are fearfully and wonder- 

 fully made." As vegetative marvels they are 

 as strangely fashioned as any of Nature's eccen- 

 tricities can possibly be, and how natural it 

 seems for the good folk to wonder what they 

 are, and enquire if these are really flowering 

 plants, and from whence they came. They are 

 equally astonished when informed they are 

 natives of this hemisphere, and increase and 

 multiply as well as other individuals of the or- 

 ganic world. And now, Mr. Editor, having 



