290 
LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
ripening their numerous cells, from which project 
pulpy red seeds, depending by long filaments. 
The Umbrella-tree is so called from its leaves, 
which are of extraordinary appearance ; they are 
eighteen or twenty inches long, and six or eight 
broad; and being often disposed in a radiating 
manner at the end of a stout shoot, they expand a 
surface of three feet in diameter. The tree itself 
does not aspire to the magnitude of its sister, being 
scarcely more than a shrub. Its large conical 
fruit is of a dull rose-colour. The Magnolias, in 
their smooth grey bark and pillar-like outline . of 
the trunk, bear a resemblance to the beech, — that 
queen of the forests. 
The character of the timber changes presently, 
and we see scarce^ anything but coniferous trees. 
The earth, where it can be discerned, is covered with 
a dense coat of needle-like piAe-leaves, brittle and 
brown, the accumulation of many years (their resi- 
nous character resisting decomposition), intermixed 
with sheets and shreds of the scaly bark. The Long- 
leafed and the Pitch Pine [Pinus palustris and 
P. rigida) are the monarchs here, exercising a joint 
dominion, which admits of no other rival. Both 
these are towering trees, the latter the more branchy, 
with a deeply furrowed trunk ; the former with a 
scaly peeling bark, great exudations of turpentine, 
and slender leaves a foot long, disposed in brushes, 
the bases being enclosed in a papery sheath. The 
turpentine on many of these trees runs down in 
great masses, congealing as it descends, while fresh 
streams flowing down over the old, and congealing 
in turn, form immense accumulations. If fire is 
applied to these exudations they catch at once, and 
burn vividly until the tree is destroyed. 
