71 
Near Roanoke, Va., were found Cyperus Lancastriensis, Porter, 
and /pomea lacunosa, L., growing as weeds in a cornfield. 
Unless I could show you some of the large photographs 
taken for the Philadelphia owners of the Eastern Tennessee and 
Western North Carolina Railroad, you could not begin to realize 
what a lovely ravine it is through which the Doe River makes 
its way out from among the mountains to join the Holston. Un- 
fortunately the focusing plate of our camera was found to be 
broken after the train had left us in the wildest and prettiest part 
of the gorge, on a stone embankment that sloped 50 or 60 feet 
down to the rocky stream below. Above us towered the lofty 
walls of Pardee’s Point, on whose steep escarpments scarcely a 
tree could cling. Here, if. anywhere, in this shady, narrow 
ravine, must the ferns and mosses grow. But, as usual, it was 
the other side that looked most promising; there, was the nat- 
ural bank of the river wooded to its edge, here, were the piles of 
debris thrown down in the construction of the roadbed from the 
rocky slope, with logs and stumps of trees, and the usual weedy 
looking, rank growth of saplings and other plants which follow 
man’s devastating efforts at penetrating nature’s wilds. To be 
sure, she had covered up many of the logs and stumps with the 
tender, pink-flowered vines of Ad/umia cirrhosa, Raf., and nestled 
in their shade beautiful clumps of Dicentra exitmia, DC.; both of 
these were still in bloom on September 12, and on the shelf-like 
ledges above us were still seen Campanula divaricata, Michx., 
and Corydalis glauca, Pursh, in flower. A few mosses and 
hepatics were gathered from these dripping shelves, and two little 
ferns, Cystopteris fragilis, Bernh., and Aspidium marginale, 
Swartz. A belated cluster of flowers was picked from a clump 
of Hydrangea arborescens, L., and Aralia spinosa, L., was seen in 
full bloom. Itis a handsome bush and forms as pretty clumps as 
our sumachs. Carex stenolepis, Torrey, was found near the edge 
of the stream. 
But this Doe River gorge is only the gateway, for Roan 
Mountain lies beyond, and we must climb all day in a tossing, 
bone-aching stage-coach ere we reach “Cloudland.”” Frequent 
walks and stops on the way up enabled us to botanize quite sat- 
isfactorily, and thus we made several new acquaintances. The 
