DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL. 267 



leaves like immense spatulas, while the air is embalmed by its beautiful 

 and enormous flowers so dazzlingly white. It is intermingled with a 

 hundred species of sassafras, catalpas, laurels, cedars, gum-trees, in 

 the midst of which the magnificent evergreen-oak distinguishes itself. 

 Everywhere the cornel-tree dazzles the eyes by its silvery splendour ; 

 the azalea is lavish of its corolla, like an elegant butterfly ; and the 

 sumach displays with pride the magnificent splendour of its scarlet 

 bouquets. All these various trees are closely matted together by 

 lianes without number — veritable alliances with these brides of 

 nature.' " 



In Florida we have arain-faU of 60, 52, 48, 41, 40, and 36 inches, 

 and in South Carolina the same. 



" The third forest zone invests the hills and low mountains 

 of the Carolinas, of Pennsylvania, and comprehends the slopes 

 of the AUeghanies which we have just described. The oak, the 

 birch, the mulberry, the sycamore, the maple, occupy these 

 woods. The willow-leaved oak, the elm, and the chestnut, principally 

 form forests in Pennsylvania and in New Jt-rsey ; in the environs 

 of Habochene venerable forests run parallel to the coast. The two 

 parts of this state form a striking contrast to the rest; whilst a 

 vigorous vegetatioa adorns the northera division^, thuss that lie to the 

 south ofifer only an arid s.iudy soil, whicli has its owa species and its 

 especial forests. The upper Ohio flo vs ualer a bjwer of tulip-trees 

 and planes, whose elegant foliage is reflected in its waters. 



" But it is in the state of Indiana, above all in the environs of New 

 Harmony, upon the banks of the Wabach, that the forests of North 

 America show themselves in all their mignificence. They present, 

 among the forests of the Xew world, a distinct character, and one of 

 their peculiarities is the want of evergreen plants, with the exception of 

 the mistletoe, a species of bignonia, Dutch rushes, which are a kind of 

 equisetum, and the Miegia microsperma. When the woods are stripped 

 of their foliage, the eye is attracted only by the equisetum just named 

 which reaches a height of eight or ten feet In these collections of trees 

 the traveller is struck by the gigantic planes, ramifying themselves 

 into a certain number of hoUow trunks, which serve him as a shelter 

 in time of need. To these planes are united maples of proportions 

 almost as great, several oaks, and notably that which bears the name 

 Mossy over-cup oaJc, whose enormous acorns are strewn over the ground, 

 and which grow in close ranks. A multitude of climbing-plants em- 

 brace the trunks of the large kinds, the quinate-leaved ivy, the poison 



