ing sand, and pulverizes it in such a manner, that the most gentle wind fills the shops with it, and renders it very disagreeable to foot passengers. At regular distances pumps supply the inhabitants with water of such a brackish taste, that it is truly astonishing how foreigners can grow used to it. Two-thirds of the houses are built with wood, the rest with brick. According to the last computation, made in 1803, the population, comprising foreigners, amounted to 10,690 whites and 9050 slaves.

Strangers that arrive at Charleston, or at any town in the United States, find no furnished hotels nor rooms to let for their accommodation, no coffee-houses where they can regale themselves. The whole of this is replaced by boarding-houses, where every thing necessary [9] is provided. In Carolina you pay, at these receptacles, from twelve to twenty piastres per week. This enormous sum is by no means proportionate to the price of provisions. For example, beef very seldom exceeds sixpence a pound. Vegetables are dearer there than meat. Independent of the articles of consumption that the country supplies, the port of Charleston is generally full of small vessels from Boston, Newport, New York, and Philadelphia, and from all the little intermediate ports, which are loaded with flour, salt provisions, potatoes, onions, carrots, beet-roots, apples, oats, Indian corn, and hay. Planks and building materials comprize another considerable article of importation; and although these different kinds of produce are brought from three to four hundred leagues, they are not so dear and of a better quality than those of their own growth.

In winter the markets of Charleston are well stocked with live sea-fish, which are brought from the northern part of the United States in vessels so constructed as to

keep them in a continual supply of water. The ships engaged in this kind of traffic load, in return, with rice and cottons, the greater part of which is re-exported into Europe, the freight [10] being always higher in the northern than in the southern states. The cotton wool that they keep in the north for their own consumption is more than sufficient to supply the manufacturies, being but very few: the overplus is disposed of in the country places, where the women fabricate coarse cottons for the use of their families.

Wood is extravagantly dear at Charleston; it costs from forty to fifty shillings a cord, notwithstanding forests, which are almost boundless in extent, begin at six miles, and even at a less distance from the town, and the conveyance of it is facilitated by the two rivers at the conflux of which it is situated; on which account a great number of the inhabitants burn coals that are brought from England.

As soon as I recovered from my illness I left Charleston, and went to reside in a small plantation about ten miles from the town, where my father had formed a botanic garden. It was there he collected and cultivated, with the greatest care, the plants that he found in the long and painful travels that his ardent love for science had urged him to make, almost every year, in the different quarters of America. Ever animated with a desire of serving the country he was in, he conceived that the climate of South Carolina [11] must be favourable to the culture of several useful vegetables of the old continent, and made a memorial of them, which he read to the Agricultural Society

'The piastre was the Spanish dollar, then the common circulating coin in the United States, and the one whose value was adopted in our dollar. A South Carolina shilling was worth of a dollar.- ED.

at Charleston. A few happy essays confirmed him in his opinion, but his return to Europe did not permit him to continue his former attempts. On my arrival at Carolina I found in this garden a superb collection of trees and plants that had survived almost a total neglect for nearly the space of four years. I likewise found there a great number of trees belonging to the old continent, that my father had planted, some of which were in the most flourishing state. I principally remarked two ginkgo bilobas, that had not been planted above seven years, and which were then upward of thirty feet in height; several sterculia platanifolia, which had yielded seed upward of six years; in short, more than a hundred and fifty mimosa illibrissin, the first plant of which came from Europe about ten inches in diameter. I set several before my return to France, this tree being at that time very much esteemed for its magnificent flowers. The Agricultural Society at Carolina are now in possession of this garden: they intend keeping it in order, and cultivating the useful vegetables belonging to the old continent, which, [12] from the analogy of the climate, promise every success. I employed the remainder of the autumn in making collections of seed, which I sent to Europe; and the winter, in visiting the different parts of Low Carolina, and in reconnoitring the places where, the year following, I might make more abundant harvests, and procure the various sorts that I had not been able to collect during the autumn.

3

On this account I must observe, that in North America, and perhaps more so than in Europe, there are plants

The services of the elder Michaux in introducing European plants into America, were considerable. He is said also to have been the first to teach the frontier settlers the value of ginseng.- ED.

that only inhabit certain places; whence it happens that a botanist, in despite of all his zeal and activity, does not meet with them for years; whilst another, led by a happy chance, finds them in his first excursion. I shall add, in favour of those who wish to travel over the southern part of the United States for botanical researches, that the epoch of the flower season begins in the early part of February; the time for gathering the seeds of herbaceous plants in the month of August; and on the 1st of October for that of forest trees.

[13] CHAP. II

Departure from Charleston for New York.-A short description of the town.- Botanic excursions in New Jersey. Remark upon the Quercus tinctoria or Black Oak, and the nut trees of that country.— Departure from New York for Philadelphia.- Abode.

In the spring of the year 1802 I left Charleston to go to New York, where I arrived after a passage of ten days. Trade is so brisk between the northern and southern states, that there is generally an opportunity at Charleston to get into any of the ports of the northern states you wish. Several vessels have rooms, tastefully arranged and commodiously fitted up, for the reception of passengers, who every year go in crowds to reside in the northern part of the United States, during the unhealthy season, and return to Charleston in the month of November fol

lowing. You pay for the passage from forty to fifty [14] piastres. Its duration varies according to the weather. It is generally about ten days, but it is sometimes prolonged by violent gusts of wind which casually spring up on doubling Cape Hatras.

New York, situated at the conflux of the rivers from

the east and north, is much nearer to the sea than Philadelphia. Its harbour being safe, and of an easy access in all seasons, makes it very advantageous to the city, and adds incessantly to its extent, riches, and population. The town consists of more than 50,000 souls, among whom are reckoned but a very small number of negroes. Living is not so dear there as at Charleston; one may board for eight or ten piastres a week.

During my stay at New York I frequently had an opportunity of seeing Dr. Hosack, who was held in the highest reputation as a professor of botany. He was at that time employed in establishing a botanical garden, where he intended giving a regular course of lectures. This garden is a few miles from the town: the spot of ground is well adapted, especially for plants that require a peculiar aspect or situation. Mr. Hosack is the physician belonging to the hospital and prison, by virtue of which he permitted me to accompany him in one of his visits, and I had by that [15] means an opportunity of seeing those two establishments. The hospital is well situated, the buildings are extensive, the rooms lofty and well aired; but the beds appeared to me very indifferent; they are composed of a very low bedstead, edged with board about four inches wide, and furnished with a mattress, or rather a pallias, filled with oat straw, not very thick, coarse brown linen sheets, and a rug. The prison is remarkable for the decorum, the arrangement, the cleanliness that reigns there, and more especially for the willingness with which the prisoners seem to work at the different employments allotted for them.

Each seemed to be tasked according to his abilities or profession; some were making shoes, and others manufacturing cut-nails. These nails, made by the help of a