JANUARY. 35 



here in all its native grace and delicacy, where it had never 

 felt the fostering hand of art. Some crimson Rhexias, or 

 deer-weed, were distributed among the tufts of green her- 

 bage, like clusters of picotees. Variegated passion flowers 

 were seen on the bare white sands ; and a yellow daisy-like . 

 flower spotted the whole surface with its golden globes, 

 that seemed almost to illuminate the rough greensward. 

 Here too was the spider-wort of our gardens, 'in a meeker 

 form of beauty and a paler radiance, growing under the pro- 

 tection of the tall sedges. Above all, the eyes were attracted 

 by the luxuriant vines, that festooned the trees and shrub- 

 bery. The bignonia, at this season full of scarlet flowers, 

 covered the trunks of many of these lofty trees with a com- 

 plete drapery of verdure ; others were decorated with the 

 elegant palmate foliage of the climbing fern, (Lygodium) 

 and it seemed as if nature was striving to make glad the 

 heart of man by these gifts of beauty, where the desolate 

 plains promised nothing but gloom and deformity. 



The pine-wood is seldom an ornament to the landscape at 

 the South, where the white pine is not found. In the North- 

 ern States some of the most delightful wood scenery owes its 

 charms to this tree. There is undoubtedly more grace and 

 beauty of foliage in the hemlock, especially on a near view ; 

 but the hemlock will not bear comparison with the white 

 pine, seen at a distance, spreading out its wide horizontal 

 branches on the borders of the forest. The formality of its 

 growth is relieved by the great flexibility of its leaves and 

 branches, which are put into easy motion, without any flut- 

 tering, by a gentle wind. When the wind agitates the firs 

 and the spruces, their branches swing awkwardly to and fro, 

 without any corresponding motion of their foliage. This 

 peculiarity in the movements of these trees, afi'ects the sight 

 of every beholder displeasingly, though he may not observe 

 the cause of it, and renders them inferior in life-like beauty 

 to other allied species. The hemlock is the only one of the 

 spruces to which this remark will not apply; and it applies 

 to all the firs. Though the yellow and pitch pines have the 

 same rigidity of foliage, it is rendered less apparent by the 



