BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO NORTH CAROLINA. 23 



this direction, after exploring some of the higher mountains 

 in the neighborhood, he retraced his steps to the Savannah 

 River, proceeding thence through Georgia and Alabama to 

 Mobile. His well-known and very interesting volume of 

 travels 1 contains numerous observations upon the botany of 

 these regions, with occasional popular descriptions, and in a 

 few cases Latin characters of some remarkable plants ; as, 

 for example, the Rhododendron punctatum (which he calls 

 R. ferrugineuni), Stuartia pentagyna (under the name of 

 S. montana), Azalea calendidacea (which he terms A. flam- 

 med), Trautvetteria, which he took for a new species of 

 Hydrastris, Magnolia auriculata, etc. He also notices the 

 remarkable intermixture of the vegetation of the north and 

 south, which occurs in this portion of the mountains where 

 Halesia, Styrax, Stuartia, and Gelseminum (although the lat- 

 ter " is killed by a very slight frost in the open air in Penn- 

 sylvania ") are seen flourishing by the side of Birches, 

 Maples, and Firs of Canada. 



I should next mention the name of Andre Michaux, who 

 at an early period, amid difficulties and privations of which 

 few can now form an adequate conception, explored our coun- 

 try from Hudson's Bay to Florida, and westward to the Mis- 

 sissippi, more extensively than any subsequent botanist. A 

 few of his plants have not yet been rediscovered, and a con- 

 siderable number remain among the rarest and least known 

 species of the United States ; it may therefore be useful to 

 give a particular account of his peregrinations, especially 

 through the mountain region which he so diligently explored, 

 and in which he made such important discoveries. For this 

 purpose I am fortunately supplied with sufficient materials, 

 having had the opportunity of consulting the original journals 

 of Michaux, presented by his son to the American Philosoph- 

 ical Society. I am indebted for this privilege to the kind- 

 ness of John Vaughn, Esq., the secretary of the society, who 

 directed my attention to these manuscripts, and permitted me 



1 " Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and 

 West Florida, the Cherokee Country," etc. By William Bartram. Phila- 

 delphia, 1791. 



