482 Some of the Rarer Plants of Vermont. 



side by side, yet in striking contrast, with the staid and proper 

 Maple, — and now at Ascutney, with its sociable peaks, 3100 

 feet high, wooded to the top, and seemingly sloping gently 

 down into the plain, — and so to Windsor. Hence the Ver- 

 mont Central Railroad enabled us to reach White River, 

 where, by another railroad, viz., the Connecticut and Pas- 

 sumpsic, we were transported to St. Johnsbury. The scen- 

 ery has been changing its character, meanAvhile, for these last 

 sixty miles. Northeastward, the White Mountain range, — 

 elements of the grand mingling with the bewitching beauty 

 of the nearer view. 



Every body knows what a wonderful and curiously con- 

 trived convenience a railroad is ; and to him who would fain 

 explore mountain streams or mountain lakes for the finny 

 tribes, or, in no less exciting devotion, to flower hunting 

 would engage, such modern innovations on the primitive 

 style of forest travelling are, with all their injuries inflicted 

 on Dame Nature, of an available commodity. We can easily 

 imagine the delight which sprung up in the breast of one of 

 our tourists, who thus, in the brief space of a day's time, 

 was rapidly approaching — not, my reader, the, but — a Garden 

 OF Eden, — where the plants, if not the fruits, of tempting 

 beauty, had almost wasted their charms and fragrance on the 

 desert air. It were not necessary, then, to tell you of all the 

 wonders to be seen about the last mentioned town, nor how 

 there is a great factory, where one of the emblems of Justice 

 IS produced in vast quantity, nor how proverbial for thrift, 

 industry and morality the village is ; for to reach Willoughby 

 Lake, you must betake yourself, after due refreshment by 

 bed and board, an' you like, to some vehicle which shall carry 

 you through Lyndon. Emerging thence into the rural dis- 

 tricts, where good farms, well cultivated, and fine specimens 

 of grazing cattle, engage your attention close at hand ; while 

 Burke Mountain, 3500 feet high, of ever-changing, but of 

 ever-noble outline, continually attracts your eye eastward. 

 The first good view of the mountains between which the 

 lake lies, is obtained about eight miles this side of it. On 

 the east, Pisgah or Annance, so named in the latter instance 



