532 Plants seen about the Region of the Notch. 



Many are whirled over the road by strong horses and in stout 

 wagons, to make an entire circuit and to get over as much 

 ground as possible. Some visit certain points of attraction, 

 where the pencil of the artist, the eye of the landscape lover, 

 or the rod of the angler, may be pleasantly employed. A 

 few abide, for the season, in some quiet nook or less fash- 

 ionable inn, where they can see this bustle of the travelling 

 multitude with an indifferent regard, better pleased with 

 tracing the less known but more interesting features of the 

 region, whose perennial brooks and feathery waterfalls dis- 

 course in eloquent music amid novel forms of geological and 

 botanical wonders. 



It was for the purpose of making myself acquainted with 

 the condition and habits of some of the lower forms of veg- 

 etation, which grow with peculiar luxuriance there, that I 

 made a short sojourn at the foot of Mt. Crawford, where, 

 ensconced within the hospitable walls of the Mt. Crawford 

 House, and occupying, when I list, the strong, high-backed, 

 easy arm-chairs of its late venerable proprietor, I found 

 myself in company with a friend for whom, beside other 

 qualities of mind and heart, I entertain a profound respect for 

 his scientific talents ; and with whom, and with a valued 

 acquaintance, 1 used to sally out on some excursion, to spend 

 the hours of September sunshine and heat, among the ravines 

 of the contiguous hills or near the foam of some waterfall, 

 the white streak of whose current adown the face of the 

 mountain rock we had previously noticed and traced in the 

 distance by our eye. My new acquaintance had for many 

 summers previous visited and lived on this spot ; and to my 

 friend, the scenery was as familiar as it was loved. They had 

 both, singly and together, trod many a mountain summit, 

 explored some new lake, or encamped in the distant forest, 

 where their camp fire had been greeted by the wild animals, 

 which came to inquire into their intrusions. Familiar as 

 were these scenes to them, all was new and attractive to me ; 

 and the veriest common-place incident by field or flood, the 

 most common moss or plant, the older or latest slide, the 

 nearest cliff or the next gorge, did not fail to afford me some 



