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LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
the stalk or cane, when growing, is straight, green_, 
and pliable ; but, after being cut, soon becomes 
bright yellow, and, though elastic, acquires hard- 
ness and firmness, and makes nice walking-sticks, 
fishing-rods, &c. I have pressed these canes into 
the service of entomology, by cutting those of suit- 
able size and length, and after drying them a few 
days, using them as handles for my butterfly-net, 
for which their lightness and strength make them 
very fit. It is said that when cane has been cut, 
and is so dry that it will burn, it is a holiday 
amusement of the negroes to set fire to a cane-brake 
thus prepared. The rarefied air in the hollow 
compartments of the cane bursts them with a 
report not much inferior to a discharge of mus- 
ketry ; and the burning of a cane-brake makes a 
noise as of a conflicting army, in which thousands 
of muskets are continually discharged. It rises 
from the ground like the richest asparagus, with a 
large succulent stem ; and it grows six feet high 
before this succulency and tenderness harden into 
wood. When five years old, it shoots up its fine 
head of seed, like that of broom-corn ; the seeds 
are large and farinaceous, and were used by the 
Indians as bread-corn. 
In similar situations another plant is numerous, 
which gives a still more tropical air to the land- 
scape: I allude to the common Fan-palm ( Ghamcerops 
serrulata). It grows in the form of a low bush, 
without any stem, having many leaves. They are 
about two feet in diameter, affixed to a footstalk of 
about eighteen inches, from the end of which the 
leaf diverges in every direction, like a broad and 
nearly circular fan, folded in very regular plaits. 
Near the edge the plaits are divided, and each is 
