in the Southern States we find the lofty Palmetto, the 
Papaw Fig, the great Magnolia, and the Mangrove tree, the 
only shrubby plant that can flourish in salt water. 
Mr. Pinkerton, when speaking of the Botany of this coun¬ 
try, observes perhaps with more elegance than correctness, 
that “ the glories of the American Flora are principally con¬ 
fined to Virginia and the Southern States. It is here that 
the unfading verdure of the wide savannas, the solemn mag¬ 
nificence of primeval forests, and the wild luxuriance of the 
steaming swamps, offer to the astonished admiration of the 
Botanist, every thing that by colour, by fragrance, or by form, 
can delight the senses or fix the attention.” In this part of 
the country on the level of plains by the sides of the rivers, 
grow “ the Magnolia glauca or Beaver tree, American Olive, 
and Gordonia Lasianthus, silvered over with fragrant blos¬ 
soms, with numerous species of Azalias, Kalmias, Rhodo¬ 
dendrons, arranged by the hand of nature into thickets and 
shrubberies, entwined and overarched by the crimson Grana- 
dillasand the fantastic Clkoria,here display their inimitable 
beauties in full perfection. The sides of the pools and the 
shallow plashes, are adorned by the bright coerulian flowers 
of the Axia, the golden blossoms of the Canna Lutea or the 
rosy tufts of the Hydrangia, while the edges of the groves 
and the dubious boundaries of the savannas, rising imper¬ 
ceptibly towards the forests, are fringed by innumerable gay 
varieties of the Phlox, by the shrinking Sensitive plant, the 
irritable Dionaea, the glowing Amarillis Atamasco and the 
impenetrable ranks of the Royal Palmetto. 
The Botanist will find that many of the plants mentioned 
by this florid writer, are met with in most of the other states. 
Our mountainous ridges and our sea coast, are very pro¬ 
lific in Cryptogamic vegetables. The Equisinum, the Os- 
munda, Polypodium, Adianthum, Onoclea and Bryum, are 
some of the ferns and mosses. The Lichen, Tremella, with 
many species of Jungermania and Marchantia, are the sea 
weeds or Algae, and the Boletus, Clavaria, and Lycoperdon, 
are the Mushrooms or Fungi. 
