The foregoing list of native plants of Ohio, was furnished

The most of them have
Many of them are found

me by R. Buchanan of Cincinnati. been cultivated in his own garden. in the gardens of Mr. Joseph Clark, and of Mrs. G. Lea, and all of them in the beautiful grounds of N. Longworth, Esquire. This gentleman's taste for the collection of the elegant and curious plants of our own region, is deserving of all praise. Why should we be indebted to other climes, for sickly exotics, whilst the woods and prairies of our own state, furnish the most beautiful variety of flowering plants, throughout the season? They are all perfectly hardy and are cultivated with but little trouble.

The misletoe grows on the banks of the Ohio, and near them. By procuring its seeds in September, it might be transplanted into the trees of our woods, where it would grow well, any where almost, in this state.

We see all along the bottoms of the Scioto and the Great Miami rivers, all the plants that we do along the bottoms of the Cumberland and Tennessee, excepting the reed cane, growing still, near these latter rivers, where protected from cattle.

Such plants as require a very poor soil are rare in Ohio, because, we have little such soil; so of those that grow in very high latitudes, or in elevated grounds. Such is the arbor vi tae; it is found near the Yellow springs, in Greene county,

though with the hamamelis, or witchhazel, the alder, and Canadian yew. The red cedar is found in several places on the high cliffs, along the larger tributaries of the Scioto near their heads, in Delaware county. The white cedar or cypress is found on some few cliffs near the head of the Scioto. It once grew along the wet, old beds of the Scioto, but that was long since, and while the mastodon frequented our swamps, which were then almost impenetrable thickets.

Most of our timber trees, will soon be gone, and no means are yet resorted to, to restore the forests which we are destroying. In many places even now, woodlands are more valuable than cleared fields. It is true, that in the northwest part of the state, we have vast forests yet, but it is equally true, that their majesty is bowing before the wood chopper's axe, and will soon be gone. We do not regret the disappearance of the native forests, because by that means, more human beings can be supported in the State, but in the older parts of Ohio, means should even now begin to be used to restore trees enough for fences, fuel and timber, for the house builder and joiner. In our forests we are by far better off than Illinois state, Wisconsin, or Iowa Territories, where wood is scarce, even now, and coal is equally so, at this early date of their settlement.

Though fifty years have passed by, since this state began to be settled by us, yet we have vast forests unfelled in our hilly region, and in the northwestern corner of the state. Even along the Ohio river, an European, as he passed along the stream, would naturally suppose from what he saw of it, that our interior was occupied by one unbroken forest, tenanted only by wild beasts and wild men.

Mankind in all ages, even before the fall of man, and in all communities, have first settled along the rivers, and, their banks are even now, most densely populated. Paris, London, Vienna, and all the great citics of Europe, rear their tall and glittering spires on the margins of rivers. This remark holds good in every region of our globe where a dense population "do congregate." Canals are

but artificial rivers, and attract to them a dense population. Good roads come in competition next, after rivers, either natural or artificial, in attraction. We are multiplying them, and thereby, increasing our numbers, our wealth, and our moral

power.

But we return to travel in our narrow path, out of which, we have taken two or three steps. From the wild woods, we come back to continue our botanical journey. We next treat of such plants as have been long cultivated. This we do under the head of

NATURALIZED PLANTS.

The cultivation of the yellow leafed tobacco has been attended with signal success, in our hilly region. This kind of tobacco, sells higher than any other, in several European countries, such as Holland and Germany. It has sold even in Ohio, sometimes as high as ten dollars a hundred, in the leaf. It is cured in a particular manner, and grows only on rather a thin soil, such as exists in our hilly region. It grows on new lands, just cleared of their woods. A crop of wheat does well on the ground where the tobacco had grown in the preceding season. Instances like the following have often been known. With one hundred dollars, a farmer has purchased eighty acres of hilly land, in the woods, which he, and his family, cleared off, or deadened what timber he and they did not clear off. He then planted the whole in yellow leaf tobacco, the first year, except such land as he reserved, for corn and vegetables. He crected his houses of logs, in which he dried his tobacco, by the aid of fire. In the winter following, he sold tobacco enough to enable him to purchase six hundred and forty acres of the most fertile land, in some other part of the state. In the meantime, he had a crop of wheat coming forward on the same land where the tobacco had grown. The latter crop, which when arrived at maturity, he sold for money enough to enable him to remove to his large farm, and to go forward with his improvements there. In a few years he became a wealthy and independent farmer.

This yellow leaf tobacco, is cultivated in Fairfield, Hocking, Perry, Licking, Guernsey, Belmont, Starke, Muskingum, and many other counties in our hilly region. In the Miami valley the cultivation of the palma christi has been attended with great success, and the manufacture of castor oil from it, cold pressed. It has been found quite profitable to those who made it. The annual value of this oil, thus made, we do not know, but we do know, that it is considerable.

The cultivation of the sweet potatoe, along the Ohio river, and all its tributaries, as high as latitude 40° north, has succeeded extremely well. They are a very profitable crop. Its value sometimes is worth three hundred dollars, on an acre.

In Lawrence county, cotton has always been raised, for family use. We raise the green seed, mostly, such as grows in Kentucky, below latitude 37° north. This plant is more cultivated on the Wabash as high as Vincennes, but, in so high a latitude it is not a certain crop, and it has to be topped in August to check its further growth. The largest field which we ever saw, along the Wabash, contained only twenty acres.

Hemp is cultivated in places, and produces very well, but our people, as well as many others, do not like to handle it. Our Irish people prefer to it, the potatoe, just as our yankees do the pumpkin.

Flax seems to be going out of use, and our people cultivate less of it every year. They prefer cotton to flax, and they prefer too, the cotton cloths of Rhode Island and Massachusetts to their own manufactured cloths. The spinning wheel, the reel, and the loom are not much used in Ohio, especially the two former. Our people prefer buying their cloths from the east, to making them here, and they are right. The production of the articles of food-meat and bread, for the hungry laborers of the east, best suits our present condition.

12

II*

NATURALIZED TREES, ETC.

Besides our native trees, shrubs, plants, flowers, vegetables, and grasses, we have imported nearly all those, which are cultivated, in the eastern states. When introduced, from places lying in our parrallels of latitude, they even improve by the change, of soil and longitude.

The apple, pear, cherry, peach, quince, &c. do well here, and produce new varieties, sometimes, which it would be well to give back, to our eastern friends, as a restored loan, and as the interest on the principal which we have borrowed from them. Our western fruits, are delicious, and they are emigrating, like their owners, to the far west, where we hope their fortunes will be made better, by their removal. The peach, pear and plum tree, are often destroyed, in old grounds, by a white worm existing in vast numbers about its roots. A thorough washing of the tree, with hot water, and by digging away the earth from the roots, early in the spring, and as often as necessary, pouring on the ground and on the very roots of the tree, boiling hot water, will certainly kill the worms and preserve the trees. In Tennessee the same worm, we believe, destroys the apple tree.

The peach, originally brought from Persia, perhaps, flourishes most, in a southern climate. It does better in west Tennessee, and in Alabama, than in Ohio. The tree grows larger, lasts longer, and the fruit is larger and better, there also; whereas our apple tree, and its fruit do best here. We can exchange with those neighbors, by means of our steamers. We can carry them, our apples, and bring back their dried peaches and their cottons.

The potatoe, (which we believe, was found in latitude 40° south, in South America, which in temperature, is equal to 45° north latitude,) does not always succeed here as well as it does farther north, either in quantity or quality. Our summers are too long for its growth. It is quite disposed to grow awhile, stop, start again and grow, and start again, producing a rotten inside; an unpleasant and unhealthy plant. This depends on