120 BOTANICAL EXCURSION 
gathered Vaccinium erythrocarpum, as already mentioned, 
and beautiful flowering specimens of Menziesia globularis, 
a straggling shrub, which in this place attains the height of 
five or six feet. 
The only unwooded portion of the ridge which we ascend- 
ed, an exposed rock a few yards in extent, presents a truly 
alpine aspect, being clothed with lichens and mosses, and 
with a dense mat of the mountain Leiophyllum, a stunted and 
much branched shrub (five to ten inches high), with small 
coriaceous leaves, greatly resembling Azalea procumbens.* 
The far denser growth, and the broader, more petiolate, per- 
haps uniformly opposite leaves, as well as the very different 
habitat, would seem to distinguish the mountain species from 
the L. buxifolium of the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, etc.; 
but, although I think the learned De Candolle has correctly 
separated the former, under the head of L. serpyllifolium 
(Ledum serpyllifolium, L’ Her. ined.), it is not easy to find k 4 
sufficient and entirely constant distinctive characters; since — 
peacoat Sa ik a 
the sparse scabrous puberulence of the capsule may also be 4 
observed upon the ovary of the low-country plant, in which — 
the leaves are not unfrequently opposite; and no reliance 
eun be placed on the length of the pedicels. The synonomy 
requires some correction; the Ledum buvifolium of Michaux 
(in summis montibus excelsis Caroline), and of Nuttall (so 
far as respects the plant which is “extremely abundant on 
the highest summits of the Catawba Ridge,” that is, on Table — 3 
Mountain), as well as the Leiophyllum buxifolium of Elliott 
(from the mountains of Greenville district, South Carolina), E. 
multo, postremum modice brevior, in exemplo Michaux manifeste, at juxta : 
apicem parce piloso-pubescens ; in var. f. superne glabrata. 
Should the Carolina plant hereafter prove distinct, it will of course 
retain the name proposed by Mr. Curtis, in honour of his friend and former cà 
associate in botanical labours, Dr. Mc Ree, of Wilmington, North Ca — 
rolina, 
Leiophyllum, vide Pursh, Flora Amer. Sept. 1, p. 154, and p. 301. 
| e We are confident that the latter does not grow on the Grandfather a 
Mountain, as is stated by Pursh, on the authority of a specimen collected 
by Lyon; and we feel little doubt that he mistook for it this species of 
