HOUSES BUILT OF FOSSIL TREES jj 



acnminatiis aristulatns), the Colic-Root {Aletris farinosa), and two 

 handsome orchids, the Yellow-fring-ed OTc\i\?,{Habenaria ciliaris) and 

 the Meedow V\nV{LiiHodoru}ii pulchelhuti) grow among the sphagnum. 



In other parts of the East Tennessee mountains may be found 

 traces of the pine-barren flora. On the Cade's Cove mountains, in 

 Blount county, Pagonia divaricata^ an orchid generally supposed to 

 be peculiar to the coastal plain, flourishes among small bushes of the 

 Hairy Huckleberry {Vixccinunn hirsutuvi). Two or three asters and 

 golden-rods, and several species of boneset, all distinctive of the pine- 

 forest belt, occur now and then as stragglers along the rivers and on 

 the dry, pine-clad ridges of the Southern AUeghanies. 



In the valley of the Hiwassee, in Polk county, Deciunaria barbara^ 

 a beautiful climber of the Saxifrage family, is frequent on the river 

 banks, ascending tall trees. This is a characteristic plant of the 

 river-swamps along the southern coasts. Itea Virginica, a shrub be- 

 longing to the same family, and likewise an inhabitant of the pine- 

 barren swamps, is met with in some of the mountain valleys of East 

 Tennessee. 



Another curious fact is that several small genera of trees and 

 shrubs are represented bp two species in Eastern North America, one 

 in the low pine-barren region, another in the mountains. This is 

 true of the Sweet Shrubs [Butneria), the beautiful Stiiartias, the 

 White Alders [Clethra), Fothergil/a, a relative of the Witch-hazel, and 

 the Silver-Bell Tree's, {Mohrodc/id)'on). In the last case there are two 

 low-country species 



What are we to infer from the presence of these austro-riparian 

 plants among the flora of northt-rn origin that chiefly covers these 

 mountains? Possibly they are the advance-guard of an invading 

 army. Much more probably, however, they are the lingering survivals 

 of a more southern flora, once widely distributed over the southern 

 Appalachian region. 



HOUSES BUILT OF FOSSIL TREES. 



By Walter Hough. 



IN THE celebrated Petrified Forest, which is some eighteen miles 

 from Holbrook, Arizona, on the picturesque Santa Fe Railroad, 

 there are ruins of several ancient Indian villages. These vil- 

 lages are small, in some cases having merely a few houses, but 

 what gives them a peculiar interest is that they were built of logs of 

 beautiful fossil wood. The trees of which they are made are known 



