[6] The weeping willow is less luxuriant in this climate than in
latitude 40 deg. It is not however cultivated in this state as it is in
Pennsylvania, where it arrives at the greatest perfection. There is a
willow which grows on the banks of the Mississippi, whose roots become
as dry as tinder, after the periodical swell has subsided, but which
vegetates afresh as soon as it is watered by the next inundation. This
property of dying and returning again to vegetative existence, is not
peculiar to this willow; other plants possess the same singular
property, though this exceeds all others in magnitude. The plants of
that description known to botanists, are all water mosses except two
species of ducksmeat--the "lemna minor" and the "lemna gibba." These are
but minute vegetables floating on the surface of stagnant water, without
taking root in the pond. They may be dried in the hot sun and then kept
in a deal box for two or three years, after which they will revive, if
placed in spring, river or rain water. There is at the north a kind of
natural paper, resembling the coats or strata of a wasp's nest in colour
and consistency, which is formed of the sediment of ponds, that become
dry in hot weather. If a piece of this paper-like substance be put in a
glass of fresh water and exposed to light, it loses its dirty-white
colour in a few minutes and assumes a lively green. This sudden and
unexpected change is occasioned by a number of aquatic mosses,
constituting a part of the materials of the paper or sediment in
question, and belonging to the genus "Conferra;" for these minute
vegetables may be said to be in the state of suspended animation, while
they remain dry; but the presence of water restores them to their
natural functions by its animating virtue.
So long retaining the principle of life, these curious plants, as well
as the two species above mentioned, may be transported to any distant
country in a torpid condition, where they might again be animated. The
same remark will apply to the Mississippi willow which suggested these
observations.
[7] The negro seldom is heard to say "massa;" they generally say
_master_, distinctly.