UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 289 



of a quality sufficiently fine and soft, for the fabrication of the finest 

 linens. These mountains also yield potatoes, in vast abundance, and 

 of a quality much superior to those of the low lands. Oats, rye, and 

 m many places wheat, yield rich harvests to the hand of industry. 



In this sketch, we have noticed only the general features of the 

 soil and the most predominant productions of agriculture, reserving 

 the more minute varieties of each, till we come to the respective 

 states in which they are found. 



Botany... .The botany of the United States, including the Floridas, 

 or in other words, of the whole region extending eastward from the " 

 Mississippi to the ocean, and southward from the river St. Law- 

 rence, with its lakes, to the gulf of Mexico, may be divided into 

 those vegetables which are common to the whole country, and those 

 that occupy only particular parts. 



The most generally diffused species among the timber trees are, 

 the wiilow-leaved oak, growing in the swamps ; the chesnut oak, 

 which in the southern states attains an enormous size, and is almost 

 as valuable for its sweet farinaceous acorns as for its wood ; the 

 white oak ; the red and the black oak. Next to these in rank are 

 the walnut, and die hiccory. The tulip tree and sassafras laurel, 

 more impatient of cold than the preceding, appear as shrubs on the 

 Canadian borders, rise into trees in the midland states, and on the 

 warm banks of the Altamaha, attain the full perfection of stateliness 

 and beauty. The sugar maple, on the contrary, is seen only on the 

 northern sides of the hills in the southern states, and increases both 

 in size and frequency, in the more bracing climate of Pennsylvania, 

 New-York, and Vermont. The sweet gum tree, the iron wood, the 

 American elm, the poplar, and the taccamahacca, appear in every 

 state in the Union where the soil is suitable, without being much 

 affected by variety of climate. The light sandy tracts, both wet and 

 dry, are principally inhabited by the important and useful family of 

 pines ; of these the chief species are, the Pennsylvanian fir, the com- 

 mon and the hemlock spruce fir; the yellow, the white, and the 

 "Weymouth pine ; and the larch : nearly allied to which are the arbor 

 vitae, and the red cedar of America. The smaller trees and shrubs, 

 that are dispersed in all parts of the United States, among a multi- 

 tude of others, consist of the following ; the fringe tree, the red- 

 ir.aple, the sumach and poison oak, the red mulberry, the persimmon 

 plum, and the triple-thorned acacia. 



The mountainous ridges are not sufficiently high to be rich in 

 alpine plants ; their climate however is sensibly cooler than that of 

 the plains ; on which account, those of the south are inhabited by the 

 vegetables of Pennsylvania and the northern states, while the high- 

 lands of the latter abound in the plants of Canada. 



But the glories of the American flora are principally confined to 

 the back parts of Virginia, the southern and the western states ; it is 

 here that the unfading verdure of the wide savannas, the solemn 

 magnificence of the primeval forests, and the wild exuberance of the 

 steaming swamps, offer to the astonished admiration of the botanist 

 every thing, that by colour, by fragrance, and by form, can delight 

 the senses and fix the attention. 



The low ridges of calcareous soil, running parallel with the rivers, 

 and rising from the level savannas into extensive lawns and swelling 

 hills, are generally covered with open or entangled woods, except 

 vhere they have been converted into tillage by the industry of the 



