370 PINE WOODS. 



tion of shrubby undergrowth. During my botanical rambles 

 in this wood, I was struck with the multitude of flowers in 

 its shady arbors, seeming the more numerous to me as I 

 had previously confined my observations to Northern wobds. 

 The phlox grew here in all its native delicacy, where it 

 had never known the fostering hand of man. Crimson 

 rhexias — called by the inhabitants deerweed — were dis- 

 tributed among the grassy knolls, like clusters of picotees. 

 Variegated passion-flowers were conspicuous on the bare 

 white sand that checkered the green surface, displaying 

 their emblematic forms on their low repent vines, and 

 reminding the wanderer in these solitudes of that faith 

 which was founded on humility and crowned with mar- 

 tyrdom. Here too the spiderwort of our gardens, in a 

 meeker form of beauty and a paler radiance, luxuriated 

 imder the protection of the wood. I observed also the 

 predominance of luxuriant vines, indicating our near ap- 

 proach to the tropics, rearing themselves upon the tall 

 and naked shafts of the trees, some, like the bignonia, in 

 a full blaze of crimson, others, like the climbing fern, 

 draping the trees in perennial verdure. 



