me_, but not to _you_. Therefore I
write it not; I shall not even present you with the journal that holds
its history.

I continued to live in the hotel at Bringiers. I grew rapidly stronger.
I spent most of my time in rambling through the fields and along the
Levee--boating upon the river--fishing in the bayous--hunting through
the cane-breaks and cypress-swamps, and occasionally killing time at a
game of billiards, for every Louisiana village has its billiard salon.

The society of Reigart, whom I now called friend, I enjoyed--when his
professional engagements permitted.

His books, too, were my friends; and from these I drew my first lessons
in botany. I studied the _sylva_ of the surrounding woods, till at a
glance I could distinguish every tree and its kind--the giant cypress,
emblem of sorrow, with tall shaft shooting out of the apex of its
pyramidal base, and crowned with its full head of sad dark foliage,--
sadder from its drapery of _tillandsia_; the "tupelo" (_Nyssa
aquatica_), that nymph that loves the water, with long delicate leaves
and olive-like fruit--the "persimmon," or "American lotus" (_Diospyros
Virginiana_), with its beautiful green foliage and red date-plums--the
gorgeous magnolia grandiflora, and its congener, the tall tulip-tree
(_Liriodendron tulipifera_)--the water-locust (_Gleditschia
monosperma_); and, of the same genus, the three-thorned honey-locust
(_triacanthos_), whose light pinnated leaves scarce veil the sun--the
sycamore (_platanus_), with its smooth trunk and wide-reaching limbs of
silvery hue--the sweet-gum (_Liquidambar styraciflua_), exuding its
golden drops--the aromatic but sanitary "sassafras" (_Laurus
sassafras_)--the "red-bay" (_Laurus Caroliniensis_), of cinnamon-like
aroma--the oaks of many species, at the head of which might be placed
that majestic evergreen of the southern forests, the "live-oak"
(_Quercus virens_)--the "red ash," with its hanging bunches of
_samarce_--the shady nettle-tree (_Celtis crassifolia_), with its large
cordate leaves and black drupes--and last, though not least interesting,
the water-loving cotton-wood (_Populus angulata_). Such is the sylva
that covers the alluvion of Louisiana.

It is a region beyond the limits of the true palm-tree; but this has its
representative in the palmetto--"latanier" of the French--the _Sabal_
palm of the botanist, of more than one species, forming in many places
the underwood, and giving a tropical character