386 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 9 



tory anciently occupied by the Cherokee Indians." The "Cherokee 

 gentian" is now likewise known in the ancient land of the Powhatan. 



The white sandy pinelands and barrens of southeastern Southamp- 

 ton County, Va., are the northern limit for many rare southern species. 

 Here was a colony of Physalis nwnticola^ the first one known outside 

 northeastern Alabama, whence Carl Mohr described it from the table- 

 land of Lookout Mountain in DeKalb County. The isolation of 

 Physalis 7iwnticola on the Coastal Plain of Virginia at once recalls 

 the "Cherokee gentian," just discussed. The latter has a real strong- 

 hold in Virginia; but someone, thinking to raise crops in the white 

 sand of southeastern Southampton, cleared and plowed a patch of 

 it, thus destroying all but a few roots of the Physalis. The crop 

 raised was like that at the margin of the Burmannia bog, Indian corn 

 6 to 10 inches high, but here freely interspersed with dismembered 

 and gloriously sprouting prickly pears. Physalis monticola, a real 

 rarity, is almost destroyed ; the prickly pears have been vastly multi- 

 plied; the crop of Indian corn came to nothing. But the harm has 

 been done and vagrant weeds, with Opuntia, will now occupy the 

 area. 



Only a few colonies (and these varying from a single individual 

 to a dozen or two scattered plants) are known in Tidewater Virginia 

 of the rare orchid, Cleistes (or Pogonia) divaricata (pi. 6, fig. 1), 

 the largest-fiowered orchid north of the subtropical areas. Altogether 

 too many people for the good of the plant are aware of its largest 

 station. In September 1937, a small colony was found within 2 rods 

 of the Petersburg-Suffolk highway. But it is necessary that our 

 automobiles go faster and without delay if w^e are to keep up the 

 hectic pace of so-called civilization. Moderation and calm are out 

 of fashion, and no mere plant, however interesting, should retard 

 the pace. The Wakefield colony of Cleistes divaricata is now closely 

 crowded by the soft shoulder of the new lane of the trunk road to 

 Suffolk. It will not long tolerate flying clots of tar and oil and the 

 gradual slipping down of wastage from the soft shoulder. Only 

 two persons know the colony ; and they are mere botanists. 



Another instance where modern road construction has threatened — 

 in this case exterminated — a rare plant is that of the American lotus 

 or water chinquapin (Nelinnbo) on Cape Cod. One of the two native 

 colonies of Nelumho (pi. 6', fig. 2) along the Atlantic slope north of 

 the local stations in New Jersey was a muddy pond-hole near Mash- 

 pee, on Cape Cod. But the summer visitors who throng Cape Cod 

 to enjoy its unspoiled native simplicity must have more trunk roads, 

 and the single native Massachusetts station for Nelwribo is now an 

 up-to-date stretch of concrete. 



