416 NATURAL HISTORY OF NORTH AMERICA, 



and gathered abundance of beautiful flowers ; on one lofty bluff" 

 I gathered Spigelia Marylaniica, a lovely Commelina growing 

 in large bunches, the delicate grassy-leaved rose-coloured 

 Tradescantia, various Coreopses and RudbecMw, several fine 

 papilionaceous plants, and a large yellow tubular flower grow- 

 ing in long spikes, with many others. Having obtained a 

 large handful, I returned to the boat to dry them. This plan 

 I followed regularly, drying my papers at the chimney of the 

 engine. At one place we had a good ramble on shore for 

 above an hour: it was a pretty spot, looking just like an 

 English park, with scattered oaks, mulberries, and Catalpce, 

 with bushes of blackberries loaded with ripe fruits. We rambled 

 more than a mile, saw several dragon-flies new to me, and 

 gathered a great many flowers, and found a mulberry tree of a 

 kind I had not before seen ; the fruit was pale purple, almost 

 rosaceous, and extremely sweet ; another species with scarlet 

 fruit had been ripe some weeks earlier at St. John's Bluff', but 

 were very poor. 



Augusta is a fine city, with a good deal of the Northern look 

 about it. I forgot to mention what millions of fire-flies we 

 saw up the river. Yesterday we obtained a few new beetles, 

 the finest of them a large Chrysomelite, something like a 

 Doryphora. 



Warm Springs, North Carolina, July 8, 1838. — Early in the 

 morning of the 2d inst. we bade adieu to Augusta. We soon 

 got into a broken country, diversified by wooded hills, fields 

 of cotton, corn, oats, and pasture land. Many of the wheat 

 fields were cleared, the wheat having been cut three weeks back. 

 The increased luxuriance of apples and pears indicated the 

 approach of a colder climate. The wild plums, which two 

 months ago were ripe in Florida, were here only now ripening. 

 Bignonia radicans is everywhere in flower ; it runs up the 

 stems of the girdled trees, and often surmounts their summits. 

 Numbers of beautiful flowers are in blossom ; one, an Asclepias, 

 with an orange-coloured blossom, is very fine, and there are 

 many which I do not know. The fire-flies by night were in 

 profusion. Towards Greenville the road becomes more and 

 more hilly. From Greenville to the Saluda mountain I walked 

 nearly all the way. The road was most delightful, not from 

 the views which it afforded, but from the beauty of the woods 

 and rocks; they consist principally of oak, chesnut, tulip. 



