13 



4. Boykinia aconitifolia. — On the Iron Mountains, we 

 met with nearly all the species we had collected during the 

 previous day, and with a single additional plant of much inte- 

 rest, viz. the Boykinia aconitifolia, Niitt. We found it in the 

 greatest abundance and luxuriance on the southern side of the 

 mountain, near the summit, along the rocky margins of a 

 small brook, which for a short distance were completely covered 

 with the plant. It here attains the height of two feet or 

 more ; the stems, rising from a thick rhizoma, (and clothed 

 below, as well as the petioles, with deciduous rusty hairs,) are 

 terminated by a panicle of small cymes, which at first are 

 crowded, but at length are loose, with the flowers mostly 

 unilateral. The rather large, pure white petals are deciduous 

 after flowering, not marcescent as in Saxifraga and Heuchera. 

 5. Clethra acuminata. — While descending the mountain 

 on the opposite side, we met with Clethra acuminata, a very 

 distinct and almost arborescent species, which is well charac- 

 terized by Michaux. The flowers were not yet expanded ; 

 but towards the end of July we obtained from other localities 

 specimens in full flower, while the racemes and capsules of 

 the preceding year were still persistent. The conspicuous 

 bracts, it may be remarked, are as caducous in the wild, as 

 they are said to be in the cultivated plant ; usually falling 

 before the flower-buds have attained their full size. 



6. Pyrularia oleifera. — Towards the base of the mountain 

 we saw for the first time the Pyrularia of Michaux (^Oil-nut, 

 Buffalo-tree, SfC. Hamiltonia oleifera, Muhl.) ; a low shrub 

 which is not of unfrequent occurrence in rich shady soil. 

 Its geographical range extends from the Cherokee country 

 on the confines of Geoi'gia, (where the elder Michaux dis- 

 covered it on his earliest visit to the mountains, and where 

 Mr. Curtis has recently observed it,) to the western ranges 

 of the Alleghanies of Pennsylvania, in lat. 40", where it was 

 found by the younger Michaux. It flowers early in the 

 season, and the oleaginous fruit in the specimens we collected 

 had attained the size of a musket-ball. 



7. Diphylleia cymosa. — The Diphylleia is confined to 

 springy places, and the margin of shaded mountain brooks, in 

 the rich and deep alluvial soil which is so general throughout 

 these mountains, never occurring, perhaps, at a lower eleva- 

 tion than three thousand feet above the level of the sea. It 

 is a more striking plant than we had supposed : the cauline 



