145 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



Three years ago a party of fifteen from the Nashville 

 meeting of the American Association made the ascent, by invi- 

 tation of Gen. Wilder, the owner of the mountain, and the writer 

 collected largely at that time. During the past summer an almost 

 continuous scientific convention has been informally assembled on the 

 summit; Profs. Goodale and Gibbs, of Harvard; Prof. T. C. Porter, 

 of Easton ; Dr. Leidy and Messrs. Thos. Meehan and Joseph Wilcox, 

 of Philadelphia; Capt. J. Donnell Smith, of Baltimore; Profs. Phil- 

 lips and Synionds, of Chapel Hill, and Mrs. Geo. Andrews, of Knox- 

 ville, being of the number, so that not cnly the plants but the miner- 

 als, the rhizopods, the mollusks and the meteorology were all looked 

 after. 



It was the writer's good fortune to remain there from June 25th 

 through July and August, and this article will give some notes of the 

 results of his labors. 



The mountain is reached from Johnson City on the East Tenn., 

 Va., & Ga. R. R , and from Marion on the W N C. R. R Tne 

 former route is by stage 32 miles, and takes from early morn till 

 nearly dark, over a preposterously rough road. The first ten miles 

 lie along Buffalo Creek, through a limestone country, presenting the 

 common plants of the region, the only thmg of special botanical inter- 

 est being Asplcnium parvulum, on a limestone ledge. Crossing a slight 

 ridge, we strike the waters of Indian Creek, running through a 

 quartzite country, and in less than half a mile the flora undergoes a 

 complete transfotmation. In a few minutes we are riding through the 

 thickets of Alies Canadensis (Hemlock), Rhododendron niaximum, and 

 Leiicoth € Catesbcei, called "laurel," and said to be fatal to horses. 



Calycanth^is floridus is noted, also Asarinn Vir^inicum, under the 

 bushes with its glossy evergreen leaves, and Oxydendron arboieuni, 

 conspicuous with its long white racemes. Ten miles further on we 

 cross Iron Mountain, at an elevation of 1500 feet above the valleys 

 on either side, and see large jjatches of Galax aphylla, with its white 

 spikes, and along the roadside, LeiicotJwe recui-va, Clethra acuminata, 

 and Magnolia Fraseri From the summit we catch our first glimpse 

 of Roan, and then dashing down the valley of "Big Rocky," four 

 miles bring us to its base, 2900 feet above the sea, and we look up 

 to the summit 3500 feet above us, and seven miles distant by the 



road. 



Between 3000 or 4000 feet of altitude we notice the enormous 

 chestnuts, Castanea vesca. one measuring 24 feet in circumference, 

 and hundreds of otiiers five and seven feet around and running sev- 

 enty or eighty feet without a limb. A little higher Acer saccharinum. 

 Magnolia acuminata, Liriodendron Tiilipifera, Betula excelsa, Tilia 

 Americana, yEsculiis flava attain enormous dimensions. One speci- 

 men of /'/7/;///i- .f^;'<?//>/a (black cherry) was measured, which was 19 

 feet in circumference and probably 70 feet without a limb, and 

 straight as a pine. 



About sunset we reach the summit, which, unlike the Northern 

 Appalachians, is a smooth grassy slope, containing, perhaps, 1000 



