River Country of Georgia 
tough skin, and when opened resembles a many- 
chambered box full of translucent purple 
candies. 
Toward evening I came to the country of one 
of the most striking of southern plants, the so- 
called “Long Moss” or Spanish Moss [Til- 
landsia], though it is a flowering plant and be- 
longs to the same family as the pineapple 
[Bromelworts]. The trees hereabouts have all 
their branches draped with it, producing a re- 
markable effect. 
Here, too, I found an impenetrable cypress 
swamp. This remarkable tree, called cypress, 
is a taxodium, grows large and high, and is 
remarkable for its flat crown. The whole forest 
seems almost level on the top, as if each tree 
had grown up against a ceiling, or had been 
rolled while growing. This taxodium is the 
only level-topped tree that I have seen. The 
branches, though spreading, are careful not to 
pass each other, and stop suddenly on reach- 
ing the general level, as if they had grown up 
against a ceiling. 
[ 57] 
