38 ESSAYS. 
but this character is not constant.! Soon after leaving 
Natural Bridge, we observed indigenous trees of the Honey 
Locust (Gleditschia triacanthos), also d’sculus Pavia? 
and, in crossing the valley of the James River, we noticed 
the Papaw (Uvaria triloba) and Negundo. The roadside 
was almost everywhere occupied with Verbesina Siegesbeckia 
not yet in flower; and in many places with Melissa ( Cala- 
mintha) Nepeta, which Mr. Bentham has not noticed as an 
American plant, although Pursh has it as a native of the 
country. It was, however, doubtless introduced from Europe, 
but is completely naturalized in the valley of Virginia, in 
Tennessee, and in North Carolina east of the Blue Ridge. 
On Tuesday, the 29th of June, we crossed the New River, 
arrived at Wytheville, or Wythe Court House, towards even- 
ing; and at Marion, or Smythe Court House, on the Middle 
Fork of the Holston, early the next morning. The vege- 
tation of this elevated region is almost entirely similar to 
that of the northern States. The only herbaceous plants we 
noticed, as we passed rapidly along, which we had not seen 
growing before, were Galax aphylla, and Silene Virginica: 
the showy, deep-red flowers of the latter, no less than the dif- 
ferent habitus, caused us to wonder how it could ever have 
been confounded with the northern S. Pennsylvanica. The 
only forest tree with which we were not previously familiar 
was the large Buckeye, @sculus flava, which abounds in 
this region, and attains the height of sixty to ninety feet, and 
the diameter of two or three feet or more at the base. 
At Marion we determined to leave the valley road, and to 
cross the mountains into Ashe County, North Carolina; the 
morning was occupied in seeking a conveyance for this pur- 
1 Much to our disappointment we did not meet with Heuchera hispida, 
although I have since learned from an inspection of Barton’s herbarium, 
that we passed within a moderate distance from the place where Pursh 
discovered it. The habitat given on the original ticket, “ High Moun- 
tains between Fincastle and the Sweet Springs, and some other similar 
places,” we here cite, with the hope that it may guide some botanist to 
its rediscovery. The habitat in Pursh’s Flora, “ High Mountains of Vir- 
ginia and Carolina,” is probably a mere guess, so far as relates to the 
latter State. 
