BY EDWAPvD DOUBLEDAY. 415 



the mixture of pines and cedars, with palmettos and other sub- 

 tropical trees. I Hke Savannah much. The large trees of 

 Melia azederach, Ailanthus glandulosa, mulberries, and here 

 and there one of a New Zealand Acacia (?) with beautifully 

 delicate pinnate leaves, fairly meet in some places over the 

 streets. The Savannah river is a broad, crooked, and now 

 (from a flood) a muddy and rapid stream : on some of its bluffs 

 are most noble trees, particularly water oaks, (the most beautiful 

 of all the American oaks,) tall cypresses, &c. : along the banks 

 are tangled thickets of brushwood and vines, overrun by the 

 pretty Cherokee rose. There is also abundance of a beautiful 

 aquatic plant with heart-shaped leaves and a spike of azure 

 flowers, but I could not obtain any. In the flooded rice fields 

 we saw abundance of large white herons ; and on the shore the 

 little egret, the bittern, and the large blue crane were wading 

 among the weeds. Hei'e and there lay a huge alligator, 

 although these animals are seldom so large here as in Florida. 

 As we ascended the stream during our three days' journey, 

 the woods altered very much ; after the first thirty miles they 

 are nearly uninterrupted. In the lower parts of the river the 

 woods principally consist of water oaks, cypresses, and other 

 trees common to Georgia and Florida ; but as we ascend we 

 find the broad-leaved oaks, planes, (here called sycamores,) 

 elms, beech, limes, and other trees of the western waters. 

 Here a group of large MagnoUw spread wide their magnificent 

 flowers ; there an old tree is clothed from its root to its summit 

 with Bignonia radicans covered with bloom ; all the trees are 

 interwoven with vines and other climbers ; the Catalpw were 

 out of bloom. Still higher up, the banks of the stream were 

 fringed with tali willows, resembling the weeping willow in 

 foliage, not in form ; and in the swamps were still some noble 

 cypresses, spreading their umbrella-like heads far above the 

 other trees. From the branches the Tillandsia grows in 

 abundance, contrasting most beautifully its tresses "all hoar," 

 with the light leaves, " young as joy," of the trees on which it 

 grows. The fringe of wood varies in depth from one to four 

 miles on each side of the river ; beyond it are fine plantations. 

 At one very pretty place where we stopped to take in wood, 

 we saw in a garden large myrtles and Cape jessamines covered 

 with bloom. 



When we stopped to take in wood I always went ashore 



