ckanee. It was a
triple--stemmed tulip-tree--the Liriodendron Tulipiferum--one of the
natural order of magnolias. Its three trunks separated from the parent
at about three feet from the soil, and diverging very slightly and
gradually, were not more than four feet apart at the point where the
largest stem shot out into foliage: this was at an elevation of about
eighty feet. The whole height of the principal division was one hundred
and twenty feet. Nothing can surpass in beauty the form, or the glossy,
vivid green of the leaves of the tulip-tree. In the present instance
they were fully eight inches wide; but their glory was altogether
eclipsed by the gorgeous splendor of the profuse blossoms. Conceive,
closely congregated, a million of the largest and most resplendent
tulips! Only thus can the reader get any idea of the picture I would
convey. And then the stately grace of the clean, delicately--granulated
columnar stems, the largest four feet in diameter, at twenty from the
ground. The innumerable blossoms, mingling with those of other trees
scarcely less beautiful, although infinitely less majestic, filled the
valley with more than Arabian perfumes.

The general floor of the amphitheatre was grass of the same character as
that I had found in the road; if anything, more deliciously soft, thick,
velvety, and miraculously green. It was hard to conceive how all this
beauty had been attained.

I have spoken of two openings into the vale. From the one to the
northwest issued a rivulet, which came, gently murmuring and slightly
foaming, down the ravine, until it dashed against the group of rocks out
of which sprang the insulated hickory. Here, after encircling the tree,
it passed on a little to the north of east, leaving the tulip tree some
twenty feet to the south, and making no decided alteration in its course
until it came near the midway between the eastern and western boundaries
of the valley. At this point, after a series of sweeps, it turned off at
right angles and pursued a generally southern direction meandering as it
went--until it became lost in a small lake of irregular figure (although
roughly oval), that lay gleaming near the lower extremity of the vale.
This lakelet was, perhaps, a hundred yards in diameter at its widest
part. No crystal could be clearer than its waters. Its bottom, which
could be distinctly seen, consisted altogether, of pebbles brilliantly
white. Its banks, of the emerald grass already descr