New England is bounded on one side by the At- 
lantic Ocean, whilst in its interior, the White Moun- 
tains raise their lofty heads, nearly ten thousand feet 
above the level of the sea, piercing the dense clouds, 
great part of the year, in a mantle of snow. 
The poet’s description of a more northern climate 
is not inapplicable : 
There winter, armed with terrors here unknown, 
Sits absolute on his unshaken throne ; 
Piles up his stores amidst the frozen waste, 
And bids the mountains he has built, stand fast; 
Beckons the legions of his storms away 
From happier scenes to make the land a prey ; 
Proclaims the soil a conquest he has won, 
And scorns to share it with the distant sun. 
How delightful a transition to leave such a pic- 
ture of desolation, where the hardy birch can scarce 
unfold its miniature foliage ; nor the pine dare to fix 
itself in a region so severe; to descend the declivi- 
ties, where rocks and precipices lie in wild chaos; 
where cataracts and cascades accompany the eager 
botanist, as he meets new treasures at every step. 
Still onward descending, amongst barren steeps, 
mingled with luxuriant glens, diversity of surface 
bearing diversity of plants; till the rude waters he 
saw in the heights of the mountain, swell at its base 
into majestic rivers, and glide through valleys of 
delightful fertility and luxuriance. 
The pink variety of the Aster Novae-Angliae, is 
the most desirable of all the tall autumnal-flowering 
species. It increases very fast, in any common soil, 
and, for increase, requires only to be divided at the 
root, in spring or autumn. 
Hort. Kew. 2, y. 5, 55. 
