216 WALKS ABOUT TALLAHASSEE. 



with a comf ortable footpath of hard clay cov- 

 ering the sleepers midway between the mils. 

 If all railroads were thus furnished they 

 might be recommended as among the best 

 of routes for walking naturalists, since they 

 go straight through the wild country. This 

 one carried me by turns through woodland 

 and cultivated field, upland and swamp, pine 

 land and hammock; and, happily, my ex- 

 pectations of the ivory-bill were not lively 

 enough to quicken my steps or render me 

 heedless of things along the way. 



Here I was equally surprised and de- 

 lighted by the sight of yellow jessamine still 

 in flower more than a month after I had 

 seen the end of its brief season, only a hun- 

 dred miles further south. So great, appar- 

 ently, is the difference between the penin- 

 sula and this Tallahassee hill-country, which 

 by its physical geography seems rather to 

 be a part of Georgia than of Florida. 

 Here, too, the pink azalea was at its pretti- 

 est, and the flowering dogwood, also, true 

 queen of the woods in Florida as in Massa- 

 chusetts. The fringe-bush, likewise, stood 

 here and there in solitary state, and thorn- 

 bushes flourished in bewildering variety. 



