NORTH AMERICA. 8 £ 
amongft other good purpofes, they ferve to uphold 
them. They are frequently nine, ten, and twelve 
inches in diameter, and twine round the trunks of 
the trees, climb to their very tops, and then fpread 
along their limbs, from tree to tree, throughout 
the foreft : the fruit is but fmall and ill tailed. 
The Grape vines, with the Rhamnus volubilis. Big- 
nonia radicans, Bignonia cruci-gera, and another 
rambling fhrubby vine, which feems allied to the 
Rhamnus, perhaps Zizyphus fcandens, feem to tie 
the trees together with garlands and feftoons, and 
form enchanting fhades. The long mofs, fo called, 
(Tillandfea ufneaoides), is a lingular and furprifing 
vegetable production-: it grows from the limbs and 
twigs of all trees in thefe fouthern regions, from 
N. lat. 35 down as far as 28, and I believe every 
where within the tropics. Wherever it fixes itfelf^ 
on a limb, or branch, it fpre.ads into fhort and in- 
tricate divarications ; thefe in time collect dull, 
wafted by the wind, which, probably by the rmoif- 
ture it abforbs, foftens the bark and fappy part of 
the tree, about the roots of the plant, and ren- 
ders it more fit for it to eiClablifh itfelf ; and from 
this fmall beginning, it increafes, by fending down- 
wards and obliquely, on all fides, long pendant 
branches, which divide and fubdivide themfelves 
ad infinitum. It is common to find the fpaces be- 
twixt the limbs of large trees, almoft occupied by 
this plant : it alfo hangs waving in the wind, like 
flreamers, from the lower limbs, to the length of 
fifteen or twenty feet, and of bulk and weight, 
more than feveral men together could carry ; and 
in lome places, cart loads of it are lying on the 
ground, torn off by the violence of the wind. 
Any part of the living plant, torn off and caught 
in the limbs of a tree, will prefently take root, 
G 3 grow* 
