are sometimes interspersed with three kinds of oaks; viz. the quercus nigra, the quercus catasbœi, and the quercus obtusiloba. The wood of the two first is only fit to burn, whilst that of the other is of an excellent use, as I have before remarked. The Pine Barrens are crossed by little swamps, in the midst of which generally flows a rivulet. These swamps, from ten to forty fathoms broad, are sometimes more than a mile in length, and border on others, more spacious and marshy, near the rivers. {287} Each have different degrees of fertility, clearly indicated by the trees that grow there exclusively, and which are not to be found in the upper country. Thus the chesnut oak, or quercus prinus palustris, the magnolia grandiflora, the magnolia tripetala, the nyssa biflora, &c. flourish only in swamps where the soil is of a good quality, and continually cool, moist, and shady. In some parts of these same swamps, that are half the year submerged, where the earth is black, muddy, and reposes upon a clayey bottom, the acacia-leaved cypress, the gleditsia monosperme, the lyric oak, and the bunchy nut-tree, the nuts of which are small, and break easily between the fingers. The aquatic oak, the red maple, the magnolia glauca, the liquidambar stiracyflua, the nyssa villosa, the Gordonia lasyanthus, and the laurus Caroliniensis, cover, on the contrary, exclusively the narrow swamps of the Pine Barrens. The Spanish beard, tillandsia asneoides, a kind of moss of a greyish colour, which is several feet in length, and which grows in abundance upon the {288} oaks and other trees, is again a plant peculiar to the low country. In those districts where there are no pines, the soil is not so dry, deeper, and more productive. We found there white oaks, or quercus alba, aquatic oaks, or quercus
