Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1860-10-13
A Picture of Columbia,

IN the hntcfeF6ocHcr Wdgdzine for Oc-
tobcr we find the following pleasant sketch
of our beautiful State Capital:
The business of Columbia, aside from its
retail trade, amounts to mere nothing. CO.
lumbia never will be anything but retail
place. Charleston is accessible to all the
principal points in the State. Charleston is
the only commercial city in South Carolina-
the only place that can command the trade
OF any extent of country outside of its own
vicinity. Columbia is, and always will be,
the political centre of the State But the
pride of Columbia is in its institutions of
learning, and in its splendid gardens
The great attraction of Columbia is its
numerous and magnificent gardens. 1t has
long borne the name of the 'Flowcr Garden
of the South : and this name it is, without
doubt justly entitled to. The city is built
on the spreod-coglc' principlo-thc cover
nll-thc-groundyo you-can-gct principle every
residence surrounded with gardenn--a Block
or half block, fenced in with brick wall
or walled in with a board fence, about eight
feet high: the ground of which inclosuro is
kept in a high state of cultivation, planted
with choice flowers and shrubbcry, and all OK
quisitcly arranged. They are truly delightful
places, regular harcms, or would be, if in
Turkey
At the North, garden is place for
raising potatoes, cabbage, onions, and other
useful vegetables; but here it is different
sort of thing altogether. 1t is an inclosurc,
as have told you, varying in extent accord
ing to the size of the mans pile; but gcner-
ally about block or half-block, with a mar
bic house made out of wood, standing near
the middle, for the man to live in a glass
house, near one corner for such delicate plants
as are not parti,l to winter, to live in; great
variety of flowers, and curious smelling weeds,
and strange bushes; and what ground is va
cant, laid off into fancy paths and walks, with
the grass hoed out, which would be such nice
places for schoolgirls to hip-it.t-hop
"Thcn there arc thick punches of crane
vines running over racks laden with hanging
clusters of grapes, such as the spies got in Ca
naan, and fig-trces more than thirty-fve feet
high, though history says they only grew
twenty loaded with ripcncd figs, and plums,
and "prlcots, and pears, and peaches, and or
anGeS, and nectarincs, and pomcgranats, tempt
tngIy waiting for school-boys to come around
Then again, there is cedar of Lebanon and
magnolia, and olive, and laurel and hybscus,
and faurcstenius, and butlca, and abutcl2n
and estrapia, and cotoneastcr, and olcandcr
and palmetto, locked in each Others embrace
and gayly holding blossoms in their hands,
while, aloof from all, stands lone Acacia, weep
ing, and creeping up among them is the cac
tus, and the jasmine, and the passion vine, and
the honcysucllle, and bignonia, and the lata-
MIA, and the mystcria, and the plumbago, and
the lpom9a, and the asclcpas, unfolding their
Wch tintcd and swcet.scented buds to cntice
while they stcalthily entwinc their long ten
drll-fingcrs around the arms and bodies of the
Towering trees, binding them into arbors that
exclude the rays of the sun and the gaze Of
the world where poetic young man and a
romantic young woman might rcpose on a
green messy bank, beneath the luxurionce of
foliage, inhaling the perfume -sckened air that
swoons around them, and forgetting the world
and themselves, fancy that they were in the
Garden of Eden, eating apples.
The Gardenia is the most fragrant flower
known. Last week one of these lovely flowers
was given me by a little girl in the street,
whom never saw before, and probably never
shall again; put it in glass of water, and
1T now fills my room with exquisite perfume
1t is astonishing the amount of perfume one
OF these little flowers can contain. The flower,
when full blown, is larger than the rose, is
perfectly white, and grows on bush, with a
dark green leaf; the leaf, both of the flower
and the bush, is thick and tough, and docs
not easily wilt; they are poisonous, if eaten
The most common way of propagatng this
plant is by cutting twig, with flower in it,,
and putting the end of the twig in bottle of
water in weeks timc it will begin to send
out roots, then it may be set in the ground,
and will continue to grow. There is richness
about the gardenia that would make it a favor
tic if it were not towering shrub Here,
in the gardens, the bush grows about six to
seven feet high, and from five to eight feet
across; but in the low-ands, along the coast,
it may be met with in round, oval hill,
thirty feet across, and in its towering magnf-
course of the season, 1t blooms from April
to September, and is an evergreen
This shrub is a native of South Carolina,
and, according to its early history, it was dis
covered by man by the name of Garden, and
hence its name Itgrows spontaneously along
the coast, and on the capes of South Carolina,
Alabama, Florida, and on some of the islands.
But the pomegranate is the most beautiful
OF all the Towering tIees, with its long slender
boughs and crimson blossoms, like flock of
brilliant red Thirds, nesting in the green, and
gently swaying in the breeze There are fonr
species of the pomegranatc, the single and
double-red, the variegated, and the white
"ln tropical climate, the flowers have a
more delicate tint, and richer perfume than
they do in Northern climate. A rose bv
any other name may smell as sweet, but it will
not be as sweet at the North as at'the South.
The roses are now blooming second time
and such roses as they have here never saw
North. There is more attention given to the