
350 RAMBLES IN FLORIDA. 
landscape is exceedingly monotonous, and the journey some- 
what tiresome ; nevertheless, it affords an opportunity for ob- 
servation, and a very fair idea of the general character of the 
country can be obtained. There are no pretty villages with 
meat houses and bright garden patches to please the eye; a 
few shabby towns are passed through, or stopped at for à 
moment to discharge freight or to allow a brace of passen- 
gers to get off or on. Away from the sad looking villages, 
an isolated cabin or a cluster of huts occupied by tar and 
rosin makers are passed by. The forest scenery has neither 
tropical beauty nor the grandeur of the pineries of Maine, 
Michigan or California,* which so impresses the beholder; 
the prevailing timber is the Pinus palustris, or pitch-pine ; 
the trees are not above medium size and stand many paces 
apart; hundreds may be seen whose sides are defaced by 
the rough scars or notches made by the ruthless axes of the 
pitch gatherers, and some trees have many of these wounds. 
At one place there is an extensive establishment for the dis- 
tillation of the spirits of turpentine, which employs several 
persons; at other points saw-mills may be seen. The pro- 
ducts of the pines are the prime fountain of revenue to the 
inhabitants of the neighborhood for many miles along the 
line of the railway. 
Here, as elsewhere within the territory of the United 
States, the pine tree and not the palm, contributes wholly, 
or in part, to the maintenance of large communities, and 
although the palms, by their fruits, furnish the chief subsist- 
ence for a large portion of the inhabitants of the torrid zone, 
and entire tribes of men in the valley of the Orinoco live 
for several months in the year on their fruits, yet it is un- 
doubtedly true that a much greater proportion of the popu- 
lation of the globe are indirectly supplied with their daily 
ue *In — with tropical forests, the tree ferns, the arborescent 
_ Grasses, the delicately branched mimosas, and the loftier of the forms are want- 
ing; there are none of the Pali here that attain a half of the height (192 feet) of 
_ those mentioned by Humboldt; neither can be seen those giants of the Conifer, the 
‘Monarchs of the forests of more northern latitudes, the Redwoods (Sequoias) and 


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