44 ESSAYS. 
this species, the “ planta Canadensis ”’ there mentioned is the 
nearly allied Dracena borealis of the ‘Hortus Kewensis.” 
The two species are mixed in Michaux’s herbarium; and, al- 
though the latter is almost exclusively a northern plant, we 
found the two species growing together on the Grandfather, 
Roan, and other high mountains of North Carolina. To- 
wards the base of the mountain we saw for the first time the 
Pyrularia of Michaux (Oil-nut, Buffalo-tree, ete. ; Hamil- 
tonia oleifera, Muhl.): a low shrub which is not of unfre- 
quent occurrence in rich, shady soil. Its geographical range 
extends from the Cherokee country on the confines of Georgia 
(where the elder Michaux discovered it on his earliest visit 
to the mountains, and where Mr. Curtis has recently observed 
it), to the western ranges of the Alleghanies of Pennsylvania 
in lat. 40°, where it was found by the younger Michaux.) It 
flowers early in the season, and the oleaginous fruit in the 
specimens we collected had attained the size of a musket-ball. 
In wet places, on the very borders of North Carolina, but 
still within Virginia, we first met with Trautvetteria palmata 
and Diphylleia cymosa; the former in full flower, the latter 
in fruit. Trautvetteria, which I doubt not is more nearly 
allied to Thalictrum than to Cimicifuga or Actza, was col- 
lected by Pursh in Virginia, both on the Salt-Pond Mountain 
and on the Peaks of Otter. The Diphylleia is confined to 
springy places, and the margins of the shaded mountain 
brooks, and the rich and deep alluvial soil which is so general 
throughout these mountains, never occurring perhaps at a 
lower elevation than three thousand feet above the level of 
the sea. It isa more striking plant than we had supposed ; 
the cauline leaves (generally two, but sometimes three in 
number) being often two feet in diameter, and the radicle, 
which is obicular and centrally peltate as in Podophyllum, 
frequently still larger; so that it is not easy (at this season) 
to obtain manageable specimens. The branches of the cymes 
are usually reddish or purple, and the gibbous deep blue and 
glaucous berries are almost dry when ripe. The latter often 
1 “ Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany Mountains,” ete. English 
edition, p. 57, ete. 
