292 
LETTEES FEOM ALABAMA. 
wliicli led off to one side. Here a hole was dug to 
receive a tub, with a spout of bark from the channel 
projecting over it. Earth was now heaped over 
the stack, leaving only a few orifices for air, and 
the pile was lighted. The tar, which is nothing 
but resin smoked and partly burned, soon began 
to trickle, and increased to a stream, which lasted 
until the whole wood was consumed. 
But to proceed with our walk, which we have 
nearly finished. The nature of the foliage, and its 
scantiness in these pine swamps, admits of much 
more light than in the forests generally ; and hence 
the ground is much overrun with herbage. All 
through the autumn, several species of (Enoihera 
have opened their beautiful blossoms to the evening 
air, courting the softened rays of the moon and 
stars rather than of the sun. One sort in particular, 
the large-flowered Evening-primrose ( (JE. grandi- 
flora) ^ with its fine blossoms of brilliant yellow, as 
wide as a tea-cup, is well worthy of admiration. 
Some species of Willow-herb {Epilohium) dis- 
charges its feathery down here, which is borne 
by the breeze into our eyes, nose, and mouth, 
and hangs about in ragged slovenly bunches. 
But most characteristic is the plant called the 
Golden-rod [Solidago)^ which covers many acres 
with tall coarse herbage, and spikes of small but 
close-set yellow blossom. Many autumnal insects, 
as the Hymenoptera and Diptera, and some moths, 
flutter around these spikes of blossom, which else 
would present few attractions. 
Hence we emerge into the high road, bounded on 
both sides by the hardwood forest, where the oaks 
and hickories, the sycamore and the tulip-tree, the 
chestnut and the sweet-gum, cast a greenwood 
