14-6 THE PLANT WORLD. 



other flowers, but the stalks are much too stiff for beauty when used by 

 themselves. With the coming of frost the rich, deep emerald green 

 of the leaves turns to reds and browns, sometimes of solid color, some- 

 times variegated, and sometimes mottled. I have found them in red, 

 brown, and yellow, beautiful as autumn maple leaves. With the com- 

 ing of spring they turn again to their rich summer garb of green. 

 Asclepias tnberosa was almost as abundant as the butterflies which 

 haunted it. Of the same group I found the A incarnata, A. obtiisi- 

 folia, A . phytolaccoidcs, A variegata, and ^. quadrifolia. At eleva- 

 tions of three to four thousand feet I found abundance of rare Acacia. 

 The Clematis Viorna, with its leathery head and graceful plume, was 

 in ample evidence. Drosera was not common, but it was there. I 

 foimd four varieties of Sabbatia. One variety which grew in swampy 

 ground, was evidently either 5. stellar is or S. gracilis, though there 

 was neither salt nor brackish marsh within three hundred miles. It 

 required no searching to find Silver Bell, Fringe-tree or Calycanthus. 

 Mints, Golden-rod, and Compositfe grew in such variety that I made 

 no effort toward definitely placing them. I simply enjoyed them. 

 They took me too far be3'ond my little knowledge of botany to do 

 more than that. I measured one of the Compositse, which I took to be 

 the Tall Coreopsis. It stood thirteen feet and six inches in height. 

 For two or three months the valley fields are bordered with a yellow 

 blaze of Golden-rod of many kinds, and other Compositse in equal pro- 

 fusion and variety. 



The season closes in a wealth of Golden-rod and white and pur- 

 ple Asters. The mountain people call the Aster the "frost-flower." 

 The last "bouquet-flower" to come is the closed Gentian {G. Aiidrezvsii), 

 which I have found almost, if not quite, as late as the first of Decem- 

 b)er. Then comes that weird and mystic growth — the Mistletoe. 

 Among the mountains I have never seen it upon any other trees than 

 the black gum and a coarse oak. Its flower is wholly insignificant, 

 but its little berry, so like a pearl, is as much a gem as many a flower. 

 In one locality I found one or two holly trees bearing a yellow berry. 



But no list of the flora of that section should fail of proper notice 

 of the Laurel and the Rhododendron. To lovers of flowers who only 

 know the Rhododendron as a much-cherished little bush growing in 

 some conservator^^, or displayed as a treasure in some public or pri- 

 vate park; and the Kalmia only tinder the same conditions, or as an 

 occasional shrub in the woods, a few days in the southern mountains 

 about the middle of June, would be a royal treat. Of the Kalmias I 

 have seen but two varieties, though I think there is a third which I 

 have not seen to know. Of the two the more abundant is K. lati- 

 folia. The mountain people invariably call it " Iv}^, " and give the 



