Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, 1861 | Page 8

species
of Rubus, trails its glossy leaves over the turfs, and mingles its beaded
fruit with the scarlet berries of the Mitchella. The Pyrola, named by the
Indians Pipsissewa, and regarded by them as a specific for consumption,
suspends its pale purple flowers in beautiful umbels, as if to invite the
feeble invalid to accept its proffered remedies. Variety, indeed, may be
found in these deep shades; but it exists without that profusion which in
more favored situations often benumbs our susceptibility to the charms
of Nature.
The edging of a Pine wood depends on the character of the soil. The
Pitch-Pine, that delights in sandy plains, is embroidered at the North by
White Birches; and if a road be cut through a wood of this kind, these
graceful trees immediately spring up in abundance by the wayside. If a
pond occurs in the middle of a Pine wood, its margin is covered first
with low bushes, such as the Andromeda, the Myrica, and the
sweet-scented Azalea, then Alders and Willows rise between them and
the forest. On the side of the pond that is bounded by high gravelly
banks, the margin will be covered by Poplars and Birches. The White
Pine, the most noble and the most beautiful tree of the whole
coniferous tribe, predominates in the New-England forest; though some
wide tracts are covered with the more homely Pitch-Pines, which are
the trees that scent the atmosphere on damp still days with their
delightful terebinthine odors. The woods in the vicinity of Concord,
N.H., on the banks of the Merrimack, known by the poetic appellation
of "The Dark Plains", are of this description. In still higher latitudes the
dark, majestic Firs become the prevailing timber, and are regarded as
typical of sub-arctic regions, where they are accompanied, as if to form
a striking and cheerful contrast with their melancholy grandeur, by
groups of graceful Birches, and lively, tremulous Poplars.
The Pine-Barrens of the Southern States are celebrated as healthful
retreats for the inhabitants of seaport towns, whither they resort in
summer for security from the prevailing fevers. They are of a mixed
character, consisting of the Northern Pitch-Pine, the Broom-Pine, and
the Cypress, intermixed with Red Maples, Sweet Gums, and other

deciduous trees. The Pines, however, are the dominant growth: but here
they do not grow so compactly as in colder regions, standing widely
apart, with a frequent intervening growth of Willows and shrubbery.
The sparseness of these woods may be in part attributed to the practice
of tapping the trees for their turpentine, which has caused them for a
century past to be gradually thinned by consequent decay. Their tall,
gaunt forms and almost branchless trunks show that they obtained their
principal growth in a dense wood.
The first time I entered one of these Pine-Barrens was some years since,
in the month of June, when vegetation was in its prime, before the
summer droughts had seared the green herbage, and when the flowering
trees and shrubs were in all their glory. During my botanical rambles in
the wood, I was struck with the multitude of beautiful flowers in its
shady retreats,--seeming the more numerous to me, as I had previously
confined my researches to Northern woods. The Phlox grew here in all
its native grace and delicacy, where it had never known the fostering
hand of Art. Crimson Rhexias, called by the inhabitants Deer-Weed,
were distributed among the grassy knolls, like clusters of Picotees.
Variegated Passion-Flowers were conspicuous on the bare white sand
that checkered the ground, displaying their emblematic forms on their
low repent vines, and reminding the wanderer in these almost trackless
solitudes of that Faith which was founded on humility and crowned
with martyrdom. Here, too, the Spiderwort of our gardens, in a meeker
form of beauty and with a paler radiance, luxuriated under the
protection of the wood. Already I observed the predominance of
luxuriant vines, indicating our nearness to the tropic, wreathed gayly
over the tall and branchless trunks of the trees: some, like the Bignonia,
in a full blaze of crimson; others, like the Climbing Fern, draping the
trees in continual verdure.
These Pines constitute a great part of the timber of the flat country
between the mountains and the coast, and render a journey through that
region singularly monotonous and gloomy. In the low grounds, a
considerable proportion of the wood consists of the Southern Cypress,
a graceful and magnificent tree, whose appearance would be very lively
and cheerful, were it not for the abundance of long trailing "moss"
(_usnea_) that hangs, like funereal drapery, from its branches, and
darkens the whole forest. This parasitic appendant wreathes the woods

sometimes almost in darkness, especially in those immense tracts on
the borders of the Mexican Gulf that consist entirely of Cypress. There