This lawn was enclosed by high rail-fences, and variegated with clumps of shrubbery and ornamental trees.

Most of them were indigenous to the country; but there were exotics as well.

Among the trees you could not fail to notice the large-flowered magnolia (_Magnolia grandiflora_), the red mulberry (_Morus rubra_), the pale-green leaves of the catalpa, the tall tulip-tree (_liriodendron_), and the shining foliage of the orange.
In contrast with the brighter frondage of these were dark cone-shaped cedars, and spire-like forms of the yew.

There were date-trees and weeping willows growing upon the river bank, and drooping gracefully over its current.

Other plants and trees might be distinguished--the natives of a southern clime--such as the great Mexican aloe (_Agave Americana_), the bayonet blades of the yucca, and the fan-like leaves of the palmetto.