BY EDWARD DOUBLEDAY. 417 



walnut, hickoi-y, plane, maple, beech, birch, locust, Catalpci, 

 red bay, dogwood, and sassafras; beneath these grow the 

 most magnificent Kalmice and Rhododendra. I saw one Kalmia 

 which, close to the ground, divided into five branches, each 

 bigger than my knee, and extending twenty or twenty-five feet ; 

 it had been covered with flowers. The Rhododendra are fully 

 as large ; their flowers are generally white. Hearing the 

 murmuring of waters, I plunged down through the bushes, and 

 soon found myself in a more open spot. A small stream ran 

 rippling over the rocks, and above me were chestnuts and oaks 

 one hundred feet high, through the foliage of which a ray of 

 sunlight would occasionally steal — 



" Shedding a glow of such mild hue, 

 So warm and yet so shadowy too, 

 As made the very darkness there 

 More beautiful than light elsewhere." 



From the crevices of the rocks grew immense Rhododendra, 

 covered with opening flowers. 



From Ashville I walked most of the way to this place ; for 

 in this mountainous country the stage scarcely makes four 

 miles an hour. The road runs mostly by the side of the French 

 Broad river, between high and wooded mountains ; the river 

 is fringed with roses, Rhododendra, Azalew, and Chionanthus 

 Virginiaca. Wild vine axiA' Bignoniw cYxnxh up all the trees ; 

 the latter, covered with larger and brighter flowers than I ever 

 saw in England, festoons the sides of the river, which roars 

 over broken fragments of rock. There is here a good deal of 

 a species oi Abies, resembling, but distinct from, A. Canadensis : 

 it runs up with a clean, straight, lofty stem, and is said to make 

 excellent timber. The tulip trees just coming into bloom are 

 enormous, often more than three feet in diameter, and reaching 

 to a great height. 



NO. V. VOL. v. 3 H 



