BARTRAM'S INFLUENCE ON LITERATURE 155 



The Cypressus disticha stands in the first order of North American trees. 

 Its majestic stature, hfting its cumbrous top towards the skies, and cast- 

 ing a wide shade upon the ground, as a dark intervening cloud, etc.^^ 



It is evident that "' the cumbrous top " of the q^press has become 

 her " spire," and it is possible that the " dark intervening cloud " 

 suggested the image about the magnolia " spread High as a 

 cloud." For the last three lines of this stanza Wordsworth's 

 own acknowledgement of an indebtedness to Bartram has al- 

 ready been quoted. He, however, merely referred in a general 

 way to the " scarlet flowers . . . mentioned by Bartram." Pro- 

 fessor Knight added a note from Mr. Ernest Coleridge identify- 

 ing Bartram as " the source from which Wordsworth derived 

 his description of Georgian scenery in Ruth " {Poems, II, p. 

 108) . It remained for Professor Lane Cooper to identify the 



flowers that with one scarlet gleam 

 Cover a hundred leagues, and seem 

 To set the hills on fire 



with Bartram's " fiery Azalea." 



The epithet fiery, I annex to this most celebrated species of Azalea, as 

 being expressive of the appearance of it in flower, which are in general 

 of the colour of the finest red lead, orange and bright gold, . . . the 

 clusters of the blossoms cover the shrubs in such incredible profusion 

 on the hill sides, that suddenly opening to view from dark shades, we 

 are alarmed with the apprehension of the hills being set on fire?-^ 



In the next two stanzas 



The Youth of green savannahs spake, 

 And many an endless, endless lake. 

 With all its fairy crowds 

 Of islands, that together lie 

 As quietly as spots of sky 

 Among the evening clouds. 



^* Poems, II, 107. The quotation is from page 90 of the Travels. Bartram 

 uses the word " Cupressus " instead of "Cypressus"; Prof. Knight does not 

 indicate that he has omitted part of the passage. 



" Travels, p. 323. Quoted by Lane Cooper in Athenaeum, April 22, 1905, 

 p. 499. 



