BULLETIN 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 
Vol. XIII. - New York, May, 1886. [No. 5. 
Botanical Notes in the Great Valley of Virginia and in the 
Southern Alleghanies. 
By E. G.. BRITTON. 
(Read March 9.) 
These regions have been quite thoroughly explored by bota- 
nists, and I can hope to add little that is new to -the published 
accounts* of their flora, but as a record of an autumn trip into a 
most delightful country this may not prove uninteresting. 
The great Appalachian Valley extends almost uninterruptedly 
from Lake Champlain southwestwardly to its termination at 
Lookout Mountain in Georgia. It is excavated’ from Lower 
Silurian rocks, mainly limestones and slates. Having travelled 
southward from Harrisburgh, Penn., to Luray in central Vir- 
ginia, it was here in Page Valley, as the Appalachian depression 
is there locally known, that our botanizing began. The under- 
lying rock is mostly limestone, bounded, however, to the east by 
quartzite, and from these different rocks result two soils differing 
radically in their flora. On the silicious soils were noticed many 
plants which grow abundantly on the sands of southern New Jer- 
sey; among these were: Stylosanthes elatior, Swartz; Euphorbia 
corollata, L.; Ascyrum Crux-Andree, L.; Cuphea viscosissima, 
Jacq.; Tephrosia Virginiana, Pers.; Chrysopsis Mariana, Nutt. ; 
Guaphalium purpureum, L., Quercus nigra, L., and Q. stellata, 
Willd., the latter larger than we had seen before. On limestone 
knobs Cercis Canadensis, L., grew abundantly, and on the bank of 
the Hawksbill Creek we found Sedum telephtodes, Michx. Its petals 
were white, but the general effect of the plant was pink, owing 
to the redness of the pedicels and stamens. The leaves and 
stems were covered with a beautiful glaucous bloom. In order 
to preserve these lovely specimens they were ironcd until flat and 
thin between sheets of newspaper, and then allowed to dry in an 
* See Dr. Gray’s account in a letter addressed to Dr. Hooker, published in the 
Am. Journ. Sci. (I), xlii., pp. I-49; and Mr. Redfield’s paper in the BULLETIN, vi., 
PP- 331-339. 
