Bo Hemarks upon East Plonda. 



paratively low, and are probably mostly submerged at high stages^ 

 of the water. Between Lake George and Lake Monroe the banks 

 are generally high enough to be dry, excepting where savannas 

 prevail. Wherever the pine-barrens strike upon the river, the 

 banks are eight or ten feet high, with a substratum of shelly soil 

 or rock. To Lake Monroe they are for the most part clothed 

 With a growth of wood — chiefly live oak, pines, and cypress, as 

 high as Lake George ; the palmetto or cabbage tree, being largely 

 intermixed thence upwards. 



The grey moss clothes nearly all the trees upon the river, ex- 

 cepting the pine and palmetto. These are respected or avoided 

 by this general associate of the trees, from some want of affinity 

 tvhich may not be understood. This moss is a most singular 

 production, having a rank luxuriance little according with its 

 kindred species. It hangs from every bough many yards in 

 length, and wears the appearance at a distance of dingy muslin 

 thrown with a careless grace over every part of the tree, waving 

 to and fro m the breeze and forming a most striking embellish- 

 ment of the scene ; and the effect is not diminished by the pres- 

 ence of the tall and symmetrical palmetto, which rises up some 

 forty or fifty feet perpendicular, like a perfectly wrought column, 

 surmounted by a capital of most appropriate beauty. The moss 

 never throws its foldings over this handsome tree ; as we have 

 before remarked, the pine is equally avoided by it. This capri- 

 cious forbearance with respect to these two kinds of trees, introdu- 

 ces a beautiful variety into the river scene. Where the banks are 

 high and sandy, the pine prevails ; where they are low and wet, 

 the cypress — " the melancholy c^/'press." The live oak, and other 

 miscellaneous trees, prefer the banks of an intermediate character, 

 as also the palmetto. The cypress seems to exclude^ all associa- 

 tions ; no other trees mingle with it, or if they happen to start 

 up along side they are soon overshadowed above by the spread-'l 

 ing tops, or crowded out by the cone-like bases below, which last 

 leave only room for the thousand " knees," or sharp excrescences, 

 from one to several feet high, which shoot up like so many dwarf 

 pinnacles. 



Ascending the river, which is constantly winding and shifting 

 the point of view, wherever the cypress permits, there the moss 

 is seen in all its sweeping luxuriance. As these trees spring from 

 nearly a water level, and grow to about an equal height, their flat 



