NORTH AMERICA. 
38I 
minate with one or more very large expanfive neti- 
tral or mock flowers, Handing on a long, (lender, 
Itiff peduncle ; thefe flowers are compofed of four 
broad oval petals or fegments, of a dark rofe or 
crimfon colour at firft, but as they become older 
acquire a deeper red or purplifh hue, and laftly are 
of a brown or ferruginous colour; thefe have no 
perfect parts of generation of either fex, but difco- 
ver in their centre two, three or four papilla or 
rudiments ; thefe neutral flowers, with the whole 
pannicle, are truly permanent, remaining on the 
plant for years, until they dry and decay : the leaves 
which clothe the plants are very large, pinnatifid 
or palmate d, and ferrate d or toothed, very much 
refembling the leaves of fome of our Oaks ; they 
fit oppofite, fupported by (lender petioles, and are 
of a fine, full green colour. 
Next day after noon we croffed Flint river by 
fording it, about two hundred and fifty yards over, 
and at evening came to camp near the banks of 
a large and deep creek, a branch of the Flint. 
The high land excellent, affording grand forefts, 
and the low ground vaft timber and Canes of great 
height and thicknefs, Arundo gigantea. I obferv- 
ed growing on the fteep dry banks of this creek, a 
fpecies of fhrub Hypericum, of extraordinary fhow 
and beauty (Hypericum aureum). It grows ere6l 5 
three or four feet high, forming a globular top s 
reprefenting a perfect little tree ; the leaves are 
large, oblong, firm of texture, fmooth and fhining; 
the flowers are very large, their petals broad and 
confpicuous, which, with their tufts of golden fila- 
ments, give the little bullies a very fplendid ap- 
pearance. 
The adjacent low grounds and Cane fwamp af- 
forded 
