LONDON JOURNAL OF BOTANY. 
EDITED BY 
SIR W. J. HOOKER, K.H. L.L.D. FRA & LS. 
l.— Notes on a Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of 
North Carolina, &c.; with some remarks on the Botany of 
the higher Alleghany Mountains. 
(In a letter to Sir W. J. Hooker, by Asa Gray, M.D.) 
THE peculiar interest you have long taken in North 
American Botany, and your most important labours in its 
elucidation, indicate the propriety of addressing to yourself 
the following remarks, relating, for the most part, to the 
hasty collections made by Mr. John Carey, Mr. J. Constable, 
and myself, in a recent excursion to the higher mountains of 
North Carolina. Before entering upon our own itinerary, it 
may be well to notice, very briefly, the travels of those who 
have preceded us in these comparatively unfrequented 
regions. The history of the Botany of the Alleghany Moun- 
tains would be at once interesting, and on many accounts 
useful, to the cultivators of our science in this country ; but 
with my present inadequate means, I can only offer a slight 
contribution towards that object. 
So far as I can ascertain, the younger (William) Bartram 
was the first botanist who visited the southern portion of the 
Alleghany Mountains. Under the auspices of Dr. Fothergill, 
to whom his collections were principally sent, and with whom 
his then surviving father had previously corresponded, Mr. 
Bartram left Philadelphia in 1773, and after travelling in 
Florida and the lower parts of Georgia for three years, he 
made a transient visit to the Cherokee country, in the spring 
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