WILD-PINES. 315 



it detects a branch to break the uniformity of its 

 column ; there the huge boughs spread horizontally, 

 each one a vast tree for bulk and extent. What an 

 aspect of strength in those contorted and gnarled 

 limbs ! How far away they carry the umbrageous 

 canopy of foliage ! And see, too, what a microcosm 

 is such a tree as this ! The hoary trunk is studded 

 at intervals with tufts of parasitic plants of the pine- 

 apple tribe ; these are called Wild-pines ; they do not 

 bear eatable fruit, but their blossoms are often of 

 great splendour, There is one now in flower : from 

 a tuft of rigid arching leaves, which form sheathing 

 cylinders at the base, springs a fine spike of closely- 

 set flowers, of the richest purple and crimson dyes. 

 Another kind has the sheathing leaves more com- 

 pactly overlapping in a sort of herring-bone or zig- 

 zag fashion, whence projects a longer, looser, and 

 more branched raceme of scarlet and yellow blossoms. 

 There are many not now in flower, for they vary in 

 their season of blooming, but the leaves shew that 

 they differ in species, though they possess a general 

 family resemblance. One sort, common enough, is 

 not at all ornamental. The negroes call it " old man's 

 beard ;" the stems are very long, and as slender as 

 wire, which form great ragged pendulous tufts, of a 

 dull hoary gray hue. 



And there, in the forks of the huge limbs, grow 

 enormous matted masses of various vegetation, too 

 remote from our eyes to be identified in detail ; but 

 we discern bunches of orchideous blooms hanging in 



