34 ESSAYS. 
and correspondent of Elliott; who, in the preface to the 
second volume of his “ Sketch,” renders an affecting and de- 
served tribute to his memory, and acknowledges the important 
services which he had rendered to that work during its pro- 
egress. 
The name of Rafinesque should also be mentioned in this 
connection ; since that botanist crossed the Alleghanies four 
or five times between 1818 and 1883 (in Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, and the north of Virginia), and also explored the Cum- 
berland Mountains. 
A few years since, the Peaks of Otter, in Virginia, were 
visited by Mr. S. B. Buckley; and still more recently the 
same botanist has explored the mountains in the upper part 
of Alabama and Georgia, and the adjacent borders of North 
Carolina. Among the interesting contributions which the 
authors of the “ Flora of North America” have received from 
this source, | may here mention the Coreopsis latifolia of 
Michaux, which had not been found by any subsequent bot- 
anist until it was observed by Mr. Buckley in the autumn of 
1840. 
No living botanist, however, is so well acquainted with 
the vegetation of the southern Alleghany Mountains, or has 
explored those of North Carolina so extensively, as the Rey. 
Mr. M. A. Curtis; who, when resident for a short time in 
their vicinity, visited, as opportunity occurred, the Table 
Mountain, Grandfather, the Yellow Mountain, the Roan, the 
Black Mountain, ete., and subsequently (although prevented 
by infirm health from making large collections) extended his 
researches through the counties of Haywood, Macon, and 
Cherokee, which form the narrow southwestern extremity of 
North Carolina. To him we are indebted for local informa- 
tion which greatly facilitated our recent journey, and, indeed, 
for a complete itinerarium of the region south of Ashe County. 
But, as the latter county had not been visited by Mr. Curtis, 
nor so far as we are aware by any other botanist, and being 
from its situation the most accessible to the traveler from the 
north, we determined to devote to its examination the princi- 
pal part of the time allotted to our own excursion. 
