474 
Notes on the Flora of Southeastern Kentucky, with a List of 
Plants collected in Harlan and Bell Counties in 1893, 
By T. H. KEARNEY, JR. 
Last summer while debating the weighty question of the se- 
lection of a field for botanical exploration, it occurred to me that 
the mountain counties of Southeastern Kentucky presented a de- 
sirable region. Here was a country almost overlooked by the 
collector. Since Rafinesque made his journey to the “ Wasioto or 
Cumberland Mountains,” little work had been done in that part of 
the State. Moreover, the position of that country on the south- 
ern edge of the northern flora, as usually defined, seemed to 
promise the finding of southern plants new to the northern range. 
Unfortunately I was unable to get into the field before the 
first of August. Leaving Knoxville on that date, I went to Pen- 
nington’s Gap, Va., ona branch of the L. & N.R.R. Here I 
secured the services of a negro,a team of mules and a wagon, 
and by means of this combination reached Harlan C. H., Ky., 
after a ride of twenty-five miles over the roughest road imaginable. 
Leaving Pennington’s, we followed the North Fork of Powell’s 
River through the gap in the main range of the Cumberland Moun- 
tains. Then the road crossed Little Black Mountain, a parallel 
ridge, and descended gradually into the valley where the three 
“forks”’ unite to form the Cumberland River. 
Harlan “Town” proved to be a fair type of the Southern 
mountain village—dirty, exceedingly ugly and thoroughly lawless. 
A stay of a few days here convinced me that I must get further 
into the mountains to secure good results, though at least one 
plant of interest, Viola villosa, Walt., was found here. Itisa well — : 
marked species, and no one who has seen it growing would con- | 
sider it otherwise. The roundish, cordate or reniform leaves lie 
flat on the ground. The appressed pubescence of the upper 
surface gives ita silvery appearance. The under surface is pur- 
plish on the veins, or sometimes the whole surface hasa purple 
hue. In the same vicinity, Clethra acuminata, Michx., Ovals 
_ -vecurva, Ell., Magnolia iripetala, L.. and oe tenuifolia, Nutt. ce 
: oy were LM ag 
