TRAVELS m 
on the banks of the Miffifippi ; yet even thefe muft 
yield to thofe of St. Juan, in neatnefs of form, 
beauty of foliage, and, I think, in largenefs and 
fragrance of dower. Their ufual height is about 
one hundred feet, and fome greatly exceed that. 
The trunk is perfedly ered, rifing in the form of 
a beautiful column, and fupporting a head like an 
obtufe cone. The dowers are on the extremities 
of the fubdivifions of the branches, in the center of' 
a coronet of dark green, fhining, ovate pointed 
entire leaves : they are large, perfectly white, and 
expanded like a full blown Rofe. They are poly- 
petalous, confiding of fifteen, twenty, or twenty- 
five petals : thefe are of a thick coriaceous texture, 
and deeply concave, their edges being fomewhat 
reflex, when mature. In the center flands the 
young cone ; which is large, of a field colour, 
and elegantly fludded with a gold coloured fligma, 
that by the end of fummer is greatly enlarged,, and 
in the autumn ripens to a large crimfon cone or 
ftrobile, difdofing multitudes of large coral red 
berries, which for a time hang down from them^ 
fufpended by a fine, white, filky thread, four, fix, or 
even nine inches in length. The dowers of this trqo 
are the larged and mod complete of any yet known : 
when fully expanded, they are of fix, eight, and* 
nine inches diameter. The pericarpium and ber- 
ries pofiefs an agreeable Ipicy Icent, and an aroma- 
tic bitter tade. The wood when feafoned is of a 
draw colour, eompad,. and harder and firmer thaj* 
that of the poplar. 
It is really aflonifhing to behold the Grape-Vines 
in this place. From their bulk and drength, one 
would imagine they were combined to pull down: 
thefe mighty trees to the earth $ when, in fad, 
smongft. 
