OCTOBER. 



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mosses. The solitary glens formed by these rocks could not 

 be imitated by anything else ; and their jutting precipices 

 afford prospects unequalled by the gentle elevations in a rolling 

 landscape. In a country where rocks are wanting, the land 

 rises and sinks in gradual declivities, and prospects are difii- 

 cuh to be obtained except from lofty elevations. 



There is so much that is attractive in the abruptness of a 

 rocky landscape, especially when covered with trees and other 

 vegetation, that many authors have attributed their pictur- 

 esque character to this rudeness and abruptness. I am inclined 

 to attribute this interesting expression to the manifest facility 

 which these abrupt situations afford, not only for prospect 

 but also for pleasant secluded retreats. Large clefts, produced 

 by the parting of the two sides of an enormous rock, furnish 

 dells, often in themselves perfect gardens of wild flowers, 

 bursting on the sight like an oasis in the middle of a rude 

 waste. In these places there is always a remarkable verdure, 

 as the rains that wash down their slopes conduct fertility to 

 the soil at their base. A rocky landscape is always pro- 

 ductive of a greater variety of flowers and shrubs than a plain 

 or rolling country of similar soil and climate. 



There are many plants whose native localities are the tops 

 and sides of rocky cliffs and precipices. Such are the saxi- 

 frage, the cistus, the toad-flax, and the beautiful pedate violet. 

 The graceful Canadian columbine is found mostly among the 

 clefts of rocks, where, like a little tender animal, it nestles 

 under their protection, and draws nourishment from the soil 

 that has accumulated about the mossy knolls where it has 

 taken root. To satisfy ourselves of the numbers and variety 

 of plants that may grow spontaneously upon a single rock, 

 let us construct one in fancy, thus enamelled by the hand of 

 nature. 



We will picture to ourselves a craggy precipice rising thirty 

 or forty feet out of a wet meadow, and forming, in its irregular 

 ascent, several oblique and perpendicular sides, whose summits 

 have collected several inches of soil upon their surface. A 

 clump of pines and birches covers its summit, together with 

 various shtubs, such as the whortleberry, the wood-pyriis, the 



