86 Dr Forry o?i the Climate of the United States. 



undergoes a striking modification, of which the Potomac 

 River forms the line of demarcation. Here the domain of 

 snow terminates. Beyond this point, the sledge is no more 

 seen in the farmer's barn-yard. The table-lands of Ken- 

 tucky and Tennessee, on the other hand, carry, several de- 

 grees farther south, a mild and temperate clime. 

 ^ 3. The Southern Division, which is characterised by the 

 predominance of high temperature, remains to be considered. 

 On approaching our southern coast, climate undergoes a 

 most remarkable modification. The seasons glide imper- 

 ceptibly into each other, exhibiting no great extremes. This 

 is strikingly illustrated on comparing the diffei'ence between 

 the mean temperature of summer and winter at Fort Snel- 

 ling, Iowa, and at Key West, at the southern point of Flo- 

 rida, the former being 56'-60, and the latter only ll°-34. 

 Compared with the other regions of the United States, the 

 peninsula of Florida has a climate Avholly peculiar. The 

 lime, the orange, and the fig, find there a genial temperature ; 

 the course of vegetable life is unceasing ; culinary yegetables 

 are cultivated, and wild flowers spring up and flourish in the 

 month of January ; and so little is the temperature of the 

 lakes and rivers diminished during the winter months, that 

 one may almost at any time bathe in their M'aters. The 

 climate is so exceedingly mild and uniform, that besides the 

 vegetable productions of the southern States generally, many 

 of a tropical character are produced. The palmetto or cab- 

 bage palm, the live-oak, the deciduous cypress, and some 

 varieties of the pine, are common farther north ; but the 

 lignum-vitae, mahogany, log- wood, mangroove, cocoa-nut, &c., 

 are found only in the southern portion of the peninsula. 

 Here also, in common Avith our southern borders, the fig, 

 date, orange, lemon, citron, pomegranate, banana, olive, 

 tamarind, papaw, guava, as well as cotton, rice, sugai'-cane, 

 indigo, tobacco, maize, &c., find a genial climate. In con- 

 templating the scenery of East Florida in the month of Janu- 

 ary, the northern man is apt to forget that it is a winter 

 landscape. To him all nature is changed ; even the bii-ds of 

 the air — the pelican and the flamingo — indicate to him a cli- 

 mate entirely new. The writer being attached in January 



