42 ESSAYS. 
entertainment from the time we left the valley of Virginia 
until we finally crossed the Blue Ridge and quitted the moun- 
tain region. Yet we suffered little inconvenience on this ac- 
count, as we were cordially received at the farm-houses along 
the road, and entertained according to the means and ability 
of the owners; who seldom hesitated either to make a mod- 
erate charge, or to accept a proper compensation for their 
hospitality, which we’ therefore did not hesitate to solicit from 
time to time. On the Iron Mountains we met with nearly 
all the species we had collected during the previous day, and 
with a single additional plant of much interest, namely, the 
Boykinia aconitifolia, Nutt. We found it in the greatest 
abundance and luxuriance on the southern side of the moun- 
tain, near the summit, along the rocky margins of a small 
brook, which for a short distance were completely covered 
with the plant. It here attains the height of two feet or 
more; the stems, rising from a thick rhizoma (and clothed 
below, as well as the petioles, with deciduous rusty hairs), are 
terminated by a panicle of small cymes, which at first are 
crowded, but at length are loose, with the flowers mostly uni- 
lateral. The rather large, pure white petals are deciduous 
after flowering, not marcescent as in Saxifraga and Heuchera. 
We did not again meet with this plant ; but Mr. Curtis col- 
lected it several years ago near the head of Linville River, 
and Mr. Buckley obtained it in the mountains of Alabama. 
It also extends further north than our own locality; for, 
although not described in his Flora, Pursh collected it on 
the Salt-Pond Mountain in Virginia! I have little doubt 
that the Saxifraga Richardsonii would be more correctly 
transferred to Boykinia, as well as the S. ranunculifolia ; 
and, since the S. elata of Nuttall, in Torrey and Gray’s 
1 The specimen in Professor Barton’s herbarium (in fruit) is ticketed 
by Pursh ; “ Heuchera villosa, Michx. ? Salt-Pond Mountain, under the 
naked knob, near a spring. This spring is the highest I have seen.” I 
know not the exact situation of this mountain from which Pursh obtained 
many interesting plants. The Boykinia aconitifolia, 1 may remark, would 
be a very desirable plant in cultivation, and might be expected to endure 
the winter of New York and Philadelphia ; it would certainly flourish in 
England, 
