it, and succeeded well, since which time many of them have continued to plant enough for their own use; but this plant soon exhausts such a soil, unless some fertilizer is used, and they therefore prefer cotton, which draws a large part of its sustenance from the atmosphere alone.  The sweet and wild orange grows here, and some extensive groves are to be seen.  Figs are produced in abundance from September till Christmas.  Gardens furnish abundant vegetables, yielding green peas in March and Irish potatoes in May, while numerous tribes of beautiful flowers hold high carnival for more than half the year.

This seems to be the true home of the rose, which is found blooming from March until Christmas.  Many of the rare climbing varieties of this flower, which we see at the North only as small specimens in green-houses, grow here in wild profusion.  The grape is represented by many species indigenous to this State alone, and could, no doubt, be cultivated and produced in greater variety and perfection than elsewhere on this continent, as the climate is more equable.  A species of Indian corn, called ‘white flint corn,’ and which when cooked is very nutritious and white as snow, seems indigenous to these islands.  It is much superior to the common varieties.

Of the sylva we will only say, it is equal in value and variety to that of any section of our country.  Here is the home of the palmetto[D] or cabbage tree, the only palm in our wide country.  The live oak, once so abundant, has, however, been largely cut off, mostly to supply our navy-yards, and some of the ships built from it are now blockading the very harbors from which it was carried.  The pitch pine is the common growth of the interior, and under a new system would form a valuable article of commerce as lumber, and as yielding the now so much required turpentine.  Of wild animals and birds, here are to be found a large variety.  The Hunting Islands and others are well stocked with deer.  During the winter wild, geese and ducks abound, and a variety of fish, with fine oysters, can be had at all seasons.

We now come to consider the present inhabitants of this district.  The whites are almost entirely the descendants of the earliest settlers of this State, who were English,[E] Scotch, and Protestant Irish, with a slight infusion of the Huguenot and Swiss elements.  A century and a half has rendered them homogeneous.  As there has never been any interest here other than agriculture, and as every man may be said to own the plantation he cultivates, there has been as little change of property or condition as possible, and therefore the same land and system of cultivation has passed from father to son through four or five generations.  Had there been any emigration or change of population, some alterations, and most likely new enterprise and vigor, would have been infused, and more modern and national feeling have been instituted for their narrow and sectional prejudices.  No doubt our national