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SOUTHERN STATES. 



9. Vegetable Productions. It is in these States, that the productions of nature exhibit tne 

 greatest luxuriance and variety. Here may be seen the magnificence of the primitive forests, 

 and the exuberant vegetation of the marshy alluvion. The shores of Carolina, Georgia, and 

 Florida, offer to the eye a succession of groves, which seem to float upon the waters. The 

 forests of yellow pine have already been noticed. The cypress swamps are gloomy, inaccessi- 

 ble regions. The cypress tree has a trunk formed of 4 or 5 enormous buttresses, which, rising 

 from the water, unite at the height of 7 or 8 feet, and produce a straight, tapering shaft, 60 or 

 80 feet in height. At the top, it throws out horizontal branches, which interlace with the adjoin- 

 ing trees, and are covered with a foliage of the deepest green. A cypress forest at a distance, 

 looks like a scafiblding of verdure in the air. 



The palmetto is a beautiful tree, and may stand for the personification of grace, as the live 

 oak may for that of strength. The trunk often rises to the height of 50 feet, and it hardly de- 

 creases in size even at the top. This is a pendent and thick cluster of glossy, fan-hke leaves, 

 more than 4 feet long, and nearly as wide. A few of the upper ones are upright, but the 

 rest hang down like the twigs of a willow, and wave gracefully like long hair in a gentle wind. 

 A close cluster of these palmettos, of an uniform height, resemble, at a distance, the pillars and 

 entablature of a dilapidated temple. 



The live oak is a fit emblem of strength. The leaves are very small, but the moss gives an 

 appearance of double foliage. This moss is of a venerable gray, and hangs from the branches 

 many feet. The trunk of the live oak is seldom straight or tall, and the tree seems rather to 

 run into horizontal branches, which cover a great space. The knees of this tree make the best 

 timber for ship-building. The live oak is altogether a tree so singular in its shape and robe of 

 moss, that a stranger will pause long to examine it. 



The big laurel, or magnolia, has been much admired for beauty, but it has not been too much 

 praised. It rises in a tall and smooth stem to a great height, but it is the leaves and flowers 

 which give it all its beauty. The leaves are of a deep and glossy green, 6 or 8 inches in length, 

 and 3 inches broad. There is no leaf in the New England forest, that will compare with that 

 of the laurel. The rich white flowers are scattered over the tree, in profusion. They are of 

 a dazzling whiie, several inches in diameter, and have a resemblance to the pond-lily. To this 

 (lower, succeeds a crimson cone, which, in opening, exhibits rounded seeds of the finest cora. 

 red, suspended by delicate threads. The tree is often more than 100 feet in height. 



The red bay, with its aromatic leaves, is a noble tree, attaining the height of 70 or 80 feet. 

 The mangrove is peculiar to this part of the country. The white mangrove grows in swamps, 

 to the height of 60 or 70 feet, and the black is found along the coasts and on the keys, where 

 its branches, shooting downward, and taking root in the mud, form new trees, impenetrably in- 

 terlaced with each other. The lignumvita;, mahogany, and some other tropical trees, are found 

 only in the southern parts of Florida. 



The dogwood is a large shrub, covered in spring with a profusion of brilliant white flowers, 

 and in autumn, with berries of a fine scarlet. It is found from Pittsburg to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 The persimon is another large shrub, with a fruit of remarkable astringency, when green. The 

 cotton-wood is a sort of poplar, with a trunk sometimes 12 feet in diameter. It bears in its 

 blossoms a downy substance hke cotton. The catalpa is indigenous to Louisiana. The paw- 

 paw, or Indian fig, the Chickasaw plum, prairie plums of various species, and grapes of many 

 sorts, are found native in these States. The Cherokee rose (rosa muUiflora) twines itself 

 around the tallest trees, and adorns their foliage with festoons of its beautiful flowers. The 

 lakes and rivers produce an aquatic vegetation, which has given rise to the fiction of floating 

 islands. The leaves and delicate white flov/ers of the pistia float upon the surface, and are 

 attached to the bottom by a twiny stem many yards in length. The bow of a vessel makes a 

 furrow through fields of this floating vegetation, while fishes are darting, and alligators gam- 

 boling, in the depths beneath. The nymphcea nelumbo is the prince of the flowering, aquatic 

 plants. It rises from a root resembling the large stump of a cabbage, and grows sometimes in 

 10 feet depth of water. It has a smooth, elliptical leaf, often as large as a parasol. The 

 flowers are a foot in diameter, and have all the brilliant white and yellow of the New England 

 pond-lily, but are devoid of its fragrance. 



The cane-brakes are another remarkable feature in the vegetation of this region. The cane 

 grows upon the low grounds, and in a rich soil. It sometimes almost equals the bamboo in 

 size. Its seed is farinaceous, and often used for bread. Its leaves are long and dagger-shaped, 

 and p. thick cane-brake forms an impervious roof of verdure in the air, which has the appearance 

 of a solid laver. A cane-brake is almost impenetrable by man, but is a favorite resort of bears 



