364 D R- JOHN MITCHELL [1747. 



hanna, took the nearest way I could, home. Since which time I 

 have travelled many times over East and West Jersey, and up the 

 North River to the great falls of the Mohawks' River, and twice 

 climbed up the great Katskill Mountains (which is near three times 

 as high as any other I ever climbed), where is a fine prospect over a 

 great part of New England. These mountains produce the greatest 

 variety of plants and trees, of any particular spot of ground I 

 know of. The Balm of Gilead Fir grows here a hundred feet 

 high, very straight ; so doth two or three kinds of the Newfound- 

 land Spruce Firs, with several kinds of curious pines, and a fine 

 species of the Paper Birch, whose bark yielding leaves [or laminse] 

 above three feet square, of fine paper for either writing, drawing, 

 or printing, and several other species of Birch ; Cherry trees 

 five feet high, not of the bird, clustered kind ; Quicken Tree [Mor- 

 bus] fifteen feet high ; a fine species of Viburnum, with broad 

 leaves, shaped like a heart ; several species of the Ar alias, and 

 Araliastrums, Christophorianas, Lady's Bowers, Herb Paris 

 [Trillium], with many other very odd kinds of plants and shrubs; 

 and upon the same ridge with your South Blue Mountain, by 

 Hudson's River's bank, grow large trees of the Arbor vitce, and 

 in the swamps, fine Larch Trees. This last sheds its leaves in 

 autumn, though a fine resinous tree. Last July I went with our 

 interpreter [Conrad Weiser] to Onondaga, to make peace 

 between your people and the Six Nations, on the account of the 

 skirmish with your back inhabitants ; from whence I went down 

 the river to the great Lake Frontenac [Ontario]. In this journey 

 I observed many curious trees, shrubs, and plants, particularly a 

 fine Magnolia [31. acuminata, L.~\, above sixty feet high, and 

 three diameter, the cones three or four inches long, the leaves a 

 foot long, and six inches broad, a little hairy, the winter bud 

 covered with down, or short hairs, to defend it from the severity 

 of the cold, in that rigorous climate. I sent a specimen of it to 

 our friend Peter, last fall. He writes me, thee sent him speci- 

 mens of the same species three years ago. * * 



DR. JOHN MITCHELL TO JOHN BARTRAM. 



London, June 2, 1747. 



Sir: 



I have a long while waited an opportunity of writing something 



