32 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



widely diffused over the earth, so that the inhabitant of the 

 sunny south and of the inhospitable north may derive equal 

 benefit from their protection and their produce. There is 

 hardly any region in which man may not kneel down under 

 the fragiant shade of a pine-wood, and thank the Author of 

 nature for this beneficent gift. 



For the beauty and grandeur of individual trees, for grace- 

 fulness of foliage, liveliness of verdure, and an easy and flow- 

 ing symmetry of form, the white pine exceeds all its kindred 

 species. But the balsamic fragrance that is so agreeable to 

 the traveller, when journeying over the occasional sandy 

 tracts and river banks of New England, comes from the less 

 graceful yellow pine. These well-known and delightful 

 odors, that greet our senses at all seasons, but chiefly during 

 the prevalence of a still, damp south wind, are in a difierent 

 manner as charming as a beautitul prospect, and have accus- 

 tomed many persons to attach a pleasing interest to these 

 barren plains. 



But there are other agreeable circumstances connected with 

 pine-woods. The foliage that drops from them in profusion, 

 after the new growth of leaves has been put forth, covers the 

 ground with a smooth brown carpeting, as comfortable to the 

 footsteps as a gravel walk, while it savors only of nature. 

 This bed of leaves prevents the growth of a tangled under- 

 wood, and keeps the spaces clear and open between the trees, 

 whose tall shafts resemble pillars rising out of the floor of a 

 magnificent temple. Hence a pine-wood is pleasantly acces- 

 sible to the traveller and student of nature ; and the scarcity of 

 bushes permits many plants of a peculiar character to thrive 

 and become conspicuous, as they lift up their heads from 

 this matting of decayed leaves. Mushrooms of various spe- 

 cies, and of divers fantastic shapes, are frequent as we pass, 

 some spreading out their hoods like a parasol, some with a 

 dragon-like aspect, others perfectly globular, and of a great 

 diversity of hues : and in the deepest recesses of the wood, 

 where the sunshine is not admitted to afford greenness to the 

 herbs, appears that rare genus of plants, resembling the pale 

 and sickly slaves of the mine — the grotesque and singular 

 monotropa. 



