114 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
The Ruhy-throat HTimming-bird ( TrocMlus coin- 
hris) delights to visit these flowers ; their deep 
capacious tubes are just the thing for him. We may 
sometimes see half-a-dozen at once round a single 
bushj quite in their glory^ humming and buzzing 
■from one flower to another, as if too impatient to 
feed ; now burying themselves to the very wings in. 
the deep corolla, sipping the nectar, or snapping 
up the multitudes of little flies entangled in the 
tube; now rushing off in a straight line like a 
shooting star, now returning as swiftly, while their 
brilliant plumage gleams in the sun like gold and 
precious stones. 
There are other plants which climb up trees, 
sending out little rootlets by means of which they 
attach themselves to the bark. All such plants are 
indiscriminately called vines. There is one which 
is named the Cross Vine, from the singular circum- 
stance of its stem, on the stripping off of its bark, 
spontaneously dividing into four parts, as if split 
crosswise into quarters. I do not know its specitic 
name, but doubtless it is a Bignonia. I have 
already alluded to the ragged drapery of Spanish 
moss [Tillandsia usneotdes), in which the withered 
arms of many of the girdled trees, and some living 
ones, are enveloped. It at first sight resembles the 
Tree-moss ( Usnea) of the north; but that is a lichen, 
whereas this is a phenogamous plant. The whole 
plant consists of long thread-like filaments, thickly 
matted together about the boughs, and depending 
at the extremities ; they are pale yellowish-green, 
especially near the tops where the young leaves 
appear, most of the plant being covered with a hoary 
greyish sort of down. The leaves sheath the stem, 
and each other at their bases, and project so little as 
