76 
half-way house, Crategus punctata was again noted bearing 
many branching thorns, and Hypericum prolificum was gathered 
in fruit. Here begins the coniferous vegetation of White Spruce 
and Balsam; the ground and rocks were densely covered with 
mosses and ferns similar almost in every respect to the same 
zone in the White Mountains, save for an occasional bush of Vac- 
cinium erythrocarpon and Menziesia, or a hollow with Rhododen- 
dron Catawbiense. The fruit of Lilium Grayi, Watson, was found 
at one of the clearings, and Angelica Curtisi?, Buckl., abundantly 
with Monarda didyma, L. As we drew near the summit the 
black, angular fruit of Z7z//ium grandiflorum, Salisb., became 
quite frequent, and at the place where we left our horses for 
the last scramble up to the top, we found a few late showy blossoms 
of Hypericum graveolens, Buckley. Cuscuta rostrata, Shuttlew., 
twined over anything and everything, and its waxy white blos- 
soms were the prettiest flowers gathered that day, and the only 
offering I had to lay on Mitchell’s grave. Around it is a space 
of forty or more feet, bare but for a low stunted form of 77zfolium 
repens with its blossoms close to the ground, and the tiny panicles 
of Poa annua in crevices among the rocks. 
An hour’s rest, lunch, and a fairly good view, and then began 
the descent. Walking was more comfortable than riding for the 
greater part of the distance, as the horses picked their way 
down the rocks less readily than we, so that it was nine o’clock 
and quite dark ere we reached Mt. Mitchell Hotel, tired out after 
so long a day and so hard a ride—twenty-six miles in all. A 
Sunday morning spent in resting and letter-writing and then we 
turned our faces homeward.. As we wound down the mountains 
through the wonderfully beautiful Swannanoa Gap, it was with the 
keenest regret that we bade farewell to these fascinating regions. 
The railroad is a marvel of engineering skill; in the short space 
of five miles there are seventeen tunnels, one long one curving 
around a point, and others following in such rapid succession that 
three might be seen in line from the rear platform, and at the 
last, just before we reached Round Knob, the train creaked over 
three long white trestles, one above the other over the same 
stream, with a curve between each, and slowed up at the hotel. 
for supper. 
