OCR Text |
Show 170 off, in the rear, into cypress swan1ps and lakes. The waters of the l\1ississippi were rising, and it was with some difficulty that they reached a house near Concord that evening. This settlement was begun since the cession of Louisiana to the United States, by citizens of the Mississippi territory, who have established their residence altogether upon newly acquired lands, taken up under the authority of the Spanish commandant, and have gone to the expense of improvetnent either in the na1nes of themselves or others, before the 20th of December, 1803, hoping therebv to hold their new possessions under the sanction of the law. Exclusive of the few actual residents on the banks of the Mississippi, there are two very handsome lakes in the interior, on the banks of which similar settleJnents have been made. He crossed at the ferry, and at mid-day of the 26th reached his own house. Dr. Hunter, and the remainder of the party, followed Mr. Dunbar, down the Washita, with the boat in which they ascended the river, and, ascending the l\1ississippi, reached St. Catharine's landing on the morning of the 31st January, 1805. C01nnwn na1nes rif' some of the trees, shrubs and j1lants growing in the vicinity of the Washita. THREE kinds of white oak, four kinds of red oak, black oak, three kinds of hickory, one of which has an oblong nut, white and good, chinkapin, three kinds of ash, one of which is the prickly, three kinds of elm, two kinds of maple, two kinds of pine, red cedar, sweet gum, black gum, linden, two kinds of iron wood, growing on high and low lands, sycamore, box elder, holly, sweet bay, laurel, magnolia accuminata, black walnut, filbert, buckeye, dogwood, 171 three kinds of locust, ~he three thorned and honey locust, hazl~, beech, wild plumb, the fruit red, but not good, bms d'arc (bow wood) called also bois jaune (yellow wood) a famous yellow dye three kinds of hawthorn, with berries, red, scarlet 'and black lote tree, for Indian arrows, bois de carbane, a ~mall growth, and proper for hoops, two kinds of osier myrtle, tooth ache tree and magnolia. ' A vine, bear~ng large good black grapes in bunches, black grape, hill grape, yellow grape, muscadine or fox grape, and a variety of o-~her vines. The saw b;iar single rose briar, and china root briar, wild goose berry' with a dark red fruit, three kinds of whortle berry' wild pomgranate, passion flower, two sorts of sumach' winter's berry, winter's green, a small red farinaceou~ berry like a haw, on a plant one inch high, ,-rhich grows under the snow, and is eaten by the Indians, the silk plant, wild endive, wild olive, pink root snake root, wild mint of three kinds, coloquintid~ (bitter apple) growing along the river side, clover, sheeps clover, life everlasting, wild liquorice, marygold, missletoe, thistle, wild hemp, bull rush, dittany, white and red poppy, yellow jessamine, poke, fern, capillaire, honeysuckle, mosses, petu to make rop.es with, wormwood, hops, ipecacuanha, persic~ na, Indian turnip, wild carrot, wild onion, ginger, wild cabbage, and bastard indigo. |