BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO NORTH CAROLINA. 59 
The only unwooded portion of the ridge which we ascended, 
an exposed rock a few yards in extent, presents a truly Alpine 
aspect, being clothed with lichens and mosses, and with a 
dense mat of the mountain Leiophyllum, a stunted and much 
branched shrub (five to ten inches high), with small coria- 
ceous leaves greatly resembling Azalea procumbens.1 The 
much denser growth, and the broader, more petiolate, and 
perhaps uniformly opposite leaves, as well as the very differ- 
ent habitat, would seem to distinguish the mountain plant 
from the LZ. buxifoliwm of the Pine Barrens cf New Jersey, 
ete. ; but although I think the learned De Candolle has cor- 
rectly separated the former, under the name of L. serpyllifo- 
lium (Ledum serpyllifolium, L’Her. ined.), it is not easy to 
find sufficient and entirely constant distinctive characters ; 
since the sparse scabrous puburluence of the capsule may also 
be observed upon the ovary of the low-country plant, in which 
the leaves are likewise not unfrequently opposite; and no 
reliance can be placed on the length of the pedicels. The 
synonymy requires some correction; the Ledum buxifolium 
of Michaux (“in summis montibus excelsis Caroline’’), and 
of Nuttall, so far as respects the plant which “is extremely 
abundant on the highest summits of the Catawba Ridge,” (that 
is, on Table Mountain, ) as well as the Leiophyllum buxifolium 
of Elliott (from the mountains of Greenville district, South 
Carolina), must be referred to L. serpyllifolium, DC. We 
were too late to obtain the plant in blossom, excepting one 
or two straggling specimens ; but we were so fortunate as to 
obtain a few flowering specimens of Rhododendron Cataw- 
biense. 
I should have remarked, that so much time was occupied in 
the ascent of this mountain as nearly to prevent us from her- 
borizing around the summit for that day; since we had to 
descend some distance to the nearest spring of water, and pre- 
pare our encampment for the night. The branches of the 
1 We are confident that the latter does not grow on the Grandfather 
Mountain, as is stated by Pursh, on the authority of a specimen collected 
by Lyon ; and have little doubt that he mistook for it this species of 
Leiophyllum. Vide Pursh, “Flora Amer. Sept.” i. pp. 154, 301. 
