FLORA OF THE MOUNTAIN. 229 



mixed in forests of other trees of the noblest proportions, 

 which it ever assumes in any soil. 



QUERCUS MONTANA affects the eastern slopes and sum- 

 mits, having a taste, as its common name indicates, (rock 

 chestnut-oak,) for rugged and stony surfaces. Associated 

 with the last species is the "castanea," and scattered in dif- 

 ferent localities over the mountain are the "nigra," "tinc- 

 toria," "coccinea," "rubra," and "falcata." From the 

 size to which many of these species grow, it would seem 

 that here must be a special home of the oaks.* 



CASTANEA. The chestnut has a special affinity for the 

 mountain. The CASTANEA VESCA grows here to a pro- 

 digious size, living ages. It bears the familiar well-known 

 sweet nut, and has an extremely rugged bark, covering a 

 coarse-grained, light wood, especially prized for its inde- 

 structibility as a fencing material. The CASTANEA PUMILA 

 or chinquepin, grows here also. 



NYSSA MULTIFLORA. The tupelo, black or sour gum, 

 grows sparsely over the mountain, presenting its ordinary 

 characters in other localities. 



PLATANUS OCCIDENTALIS. The American plane, syca- 

 more, or buttonwood, is found on the streams at the base 

 and on the table-lands of the Alleghanies, but not on its 



* In connection with oaks, a word on the progressive instincts of 

 the Pennsy Iranians may be in place. It has arranged itself on the 

 record that it required the lumber-men of Maine to come to Pennsyl- 

 vania to show her mountaineers the value of their forests, the 

 "Yankee stave-cutter" having been a pioneer in one of the most 

 valuable lumber specialties of the mountain and the State. Tran- 

 scendent Yankee!! his sharpness is past finding out; he cuts the 

 "trees that twist with the sun," saying, that those which "twist 

 against the sun will not hold molasses." Curious problem in the 

 philosophy of kinks; it seems that the refractory saccharine principle 

 of the South requires a special twist of a special Northern oak 

 to hold it level, and this, too, by the special twist "with the sun," and 

 not "against it." When will Pennsylvanians wake up to the special 

 twists of Northern Fanatics and Southern Salamanders, both with 

 and against the sun? 



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