Here and there a tall magnolia raised its cone-shaped summit high above the rest, and a huge trunk of one of these, without leaves or branches, appeared at some distance, standing like an old ruined tower.
The ground was covered with flowers of many kinds.

There were blue lupins and golden helianthi.

There were malvas and purple monardas, and flowers of the cotton-rose, five inches in diameter.

There were blossoms of vines, and creeping plants, that twined around the trees, or stretched in festoons from one to another--the cane-vine with its white clusters, and the raccoon grape, whose sweet odours perfumed the air; but by far the most showy were the large blossoms of the bignonia, that covered the festoons with their trumpet-shaped corollas, exhibiting broad surfaces of bright scarlet.
In the midst of these flowers our hunters pitched camp, picketing their animals, and putting up their tent as usual.
The sun was shining brightly, and they proceeded to spread their wet robes and blankets.
"It strikes me," said Lucien, after they had completed their arrangements for camping, "that we have halted on the site of an old Indian town." "Why do you think so ?" asked Basil.
"Why, I notice these heaps of rubbish here that are covered with weeds and briars.

They are Indian graves, or piles of decayed logs where houses once stood.