_Vine._――The common grape vine is diffused through all the climates. It frequently happens that we see, in the rich lands, vines of the size of a man’s body, perpendicularly attached at the top to branches sixty or eighty feet from the ground, and at great lateral distance from the trunk of the tree. It is common to puzzle a man first brought into these woods, by asking him to account for the manner in which a vine of prodigious size has been able to rear itself to such a height. There can be no doubt that the vine in this case is coeval with the tree; that the tree, as it grew, supported the vine; and that the vine was carried from the trunk with the projection of the lateral branch, until, in the lapse of years, this singular appearance is the result. In many bottoms, half the trees are covered with these vines. In the deep forest, on the hills, in the barrens, in the hazel prairies, and in the pine woods, every form and size of the grape are found. Of the plants of the winter grape, which so generally clings to the trees in the alluvial forests, probably not one in fifty bears any fruit at all. The fruit when produced is a small circular berry not unlike the wild black cherry. It is austere, sour, and unpleasant, until it has been softened by the winter frosts; but it is said, when fermented by those who have experience in the practice, to make a tolerable wine. The summer grape is found on the rolling barrens and the hazel prairies. It is more than twice the size of the winter grape, is ripe in the first month in autumn, and, when matured under the full influence of the sun, is a pleasant fruit. It grows in the greatest abundance, but is too dry a grape to be pressed for wine. The muscadine grape is seldom seen north of thirty-four degrees. More southerly, it becomes abundant, and is found in the deep alluvial forests, clinging to tall trees. The fruit grows in more scanty clusters than that of other grapes. Like other fruits, they fall as they ripen, and furnish a rich treat to bears and other animals that feed on them; they are of the size of a plum, of a fine purple black, with a thick tough skin, tasting not unlike the rind of an orange; the pulp is deliciously sweet, but is reputed unwholesome. The pine woods grape has a slender, bluish purple vine, that runs on the ground among the grass. It ripens in the month of June; is large, cone-shaped, transparent, with four seeds, reddish purple, and is fine fruit for eating. _Cane._――The _Cane_ grows to the height of twenty or thirty feet on the lower courses of the Mississippi, Arkansas and Red rivers. Its leaves are dagger-shaped, long and narrow, and of a beautiful green. It grows in masses so compact that the smallest sparrow would find it difficult to fly in the intervals. A man could not make his way through a cane brake, at a rate more rapid than three miles a day.