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LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
LETTER XVI. 
November 1st. 
My communications now become fewer and more 
remote^ for the aspects of nature are less varied than 
in summer ; this is the period of old age and death 
with many plants and animals ; and where life en- 
dures, its vigour is devoted rather to the perfecting 
of that which has already appeared than to the 
production of new forms. Seeds, not flowers, are 
characteristic of autumn ; yet a few of the latter 
linger yet, and many of the former are sufliciently 
interesting to beguile the time and enchain the 
attention of the naturalist. 
My daily walk still presents many objects of 
interest. Let me describe it to you, for it is not 
in the same district as that in which I asked your 
company some months ago, my lodgings now 
, lying in quite another direction from the school. 
We first descend a hill by a narrow rocky path 
through some bowery underwood, much matted 
and tangled with briars {Smilax) and vines, and 
creeping plants of many species. The foliage of 
the slender shrubs, as brightly green as if it were 
July, hangs overhead, and nearly meets across the 
narrow pathway, and here morning after morning 
is my eye, delighted with a constant succession of 
