It was the characteristic tree around the glade.

There were many others, though; and most conspicuous, with its large wax-like leaves and blossoms, was the magnolia grandiflora.

The lofty sugar-maple (_acer saccharinum_) was seen, and lower down the leafy buck-eye (_aesculus flava_) with its pretty orange-flowers, and the shell-bark hickory--the _juglans alba_ of the botanists.

Huge creeping plants stretched from tree to tree, or ran slanting upward; and on one side of the glade you might observe the thick cane-reeds (_arundo gigantea_), growing like tall grass.

The forest on the other side was more open; no doubt, because some former fire had burned down the underwood in that direction.