MAY. 127 



of course, will tell you it is the Xerophyllum setifolium 

 but something prettier for common use, please, learned 

 gentlemen. 



It was indeed strange to see a lily growing in such a 

 barren, utterly forsaken spot as this ; for the Xerophyllum 

 is a member of that blue-blooded tribe, and holds its 

 head aloft more haughtily than gaudy Turk's-cap or the 

 spotted tiger. 



From a cluster of grass-like leaves, themselves a foot 

 or more in length, and as harsh to the touch as bits of 

 flattened wire, there towers a cylindrical, greenish- white 

 stalk, covered with hair-like leaves, and crowned with a 

 pyramidal raceme. The delicate flowers open at the base 

 at first, and then daily add to their numbers, until the 

 top is expanded, when we have an oval, feathery mass 

 of purely white blossoms, waxy, and golden at their 

 centers. 



The scent of roses, alas ! does not cling to them. 

 Rather an odor that perhaps has caused them to be with- 

 out the pale of lilydom. 



My visit ended with a long row down the river Great 

 Egg Harbor Eiver, as it has long been named, " from the 

 fact that, in Indian times, it was near its mouth a great 

 resort for breeding sea-birds," at least so runs the record 

 that I have. I doubt not but that here, too, far from 

 the mouth, there once nested many inland birds, and this 

 is based on the fact that no sooner had I reached the 

 water's edge than I heard familiar birds, not one of which 

 was seen in the woods. But to this I shall return. 



The old wharf is not now a scene of busy industry, 

 and the river, at low tide, is little more than a shallow 

 creek, with weedy bottom and tortuous sand-bars. Trade 

 has found new channels, but we proposed a voyage along 

 the old, and embarked in the Iva, a misshapen and ponder- 



