LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
189 
I 
notice. In neglected pastures^ the tall, well- 
known, and widely-spread Mullein ( Verbasmm 
nigrum) has begun to develop the earliest of its 
pretty blossoms. Bearing many flowers in its 
lengthened and closely-set rachis, it continues in 
bloom a long time, and it is singular that it usually 
shows its open flowers at the two extremities of 
the spike, while the central ones remain unex- 
panded. V Of course these in their turn open, and 
the peculiarity ceases. There is something noble 
in the appearance of this tall plant ; and its flowers 
are elegantly spotted with red, on a bright yellow 
ground. The leaves are large, and thickly clothed 
with soft woolly down. It is even more abundant 
with us in the open situations I have named, than 
in the north, and frequently affords a resting place 
for such birds as the Fly-catchers [Muscicapce) , 
The lovely little Blue-bird [Sylvia sialis)^ that 
universal favourite, I have often seen watching on 
this plant, in the same manner as those birds do, 
for flies and other insects, and occasionally war- 
bling forth his sweet but unpretending notes, or 
flitting from one stalk to another through a whole 
field ; the bright azure blue of his back and wings 
making him very conspicuous in the sunbeams. 
In the garden of a planter I lately saw the 
Indian Shot [Ganna angustifolia) in flower. From 
the habits of the proprietor, it is not at all pro- 
bable that any of his garden flowers would be 
exotics, as the place was deep in the solitude of the 
forest, and so recently reclaimed, that the stumps 
of the trees still remained undecayed in the garden. 
I have little doubt that the plant was originally 
found very near, if not exactly on the site where I 
saw it. It is a singular plant; the leaves are 
