DECEMBER RAMBLE IN TUSCALOOSA COUNTY, ALABAMA. IO5 



farther up the river this species became more abundant, until at 

 the point where I turned back there was probably more of it in 

 sight than of any other tree. 



At the mouth of the first creek I came to, I stopped to examine 

 the flora of the cliiTs more minutely, and found there among other 

 things the lip-fern, Chcilaiitlics lojiosa. in abundance: the ferns 

 JVoodsia obtitsa and Asplcjiiiiiii Trichoiiuvics ; stone crop, Scdiim 

 tcrjiatuiii, and 6'. Xc-z-ii; early saxifrage, Sa.rifra^^a Jlrgiiiiciisis ; 

 Hydrangea qiiercifoUa ; a species of syringa, Pliiladclpliiis ; 

 Xci-iusia Alabamciisis; golden-rod, Solidago aiiiplc.vicaulis. and 

 Aster Caiiipfosonis. The Xez'iitsia was discovered somewhere 

 near this spot about fifty years ago by Drs. Xevius and Wyman,* 

 and was known nowhere else until Mr. T. G. Harbison found it 

 a few years ago on Sand ]\[ountain in the northern part of the 

 state. t A few specimens of an elm loaded with fruit near the 

 base of the same clifl:'s could be no other than Ulniiis serofina, 

 described by Professor Sargent in 18^9 and known only from a 

 verv few stations in the southern Alleghanies. 



At the same place was seen a single specimen of Pnimis Caro- 

 liiiiaiia. an evergreen tree which is commonly cultivated for orna- 

 ment in many of the older cities of the South, but is so rare in the 

 wild statei that one can hardly be certain that the specimens seen 

 in the woods have not sprung from seeds brought by birds from 

 cultivated specimens. Its geographical distribution is conse- 

 quently very imperfectly understood, but it seems to be normally 

 confined to the coastal plain, like many other southern evergreens. 



A little farther up the river the fern Dryopferis luargiiialis was 

 abundant on the clifl:'s, and with it many specimens of Jlola Cana- 

 densis, which was previously known in Alabama only from Jack- 

 son County, where Mr. Harbison found it in I90i.§ Most of 

 these violets, strange to say, were in full bloom, though at this 

 time the leaves were covered with frost after midday. This par- 

 ticular spot happened to be on a railroad right-of-way, from 



* See Plant World. Sept., 1900. 



t Biltmore Bot. Stud, i: 155. igo_'. 



$ See Mohr, Contr. U. S. Xat. Herb. 5: 553. 1901. 



§ Fillmore Eot. St--d. i: 157. ico?. 



