34 ESS A YS. 



and correspondent of Elliott ; who, in the preface to the 

 second volume of his " Sketch," renders an affecting and de- 

 served tribute to his memory, and acknowledges the important 

 services which he had rendered to that work during its pro- 

 gress. 



The name of Rafinesque should also be mentioned in this 

 connection ; since that botanist crossed the Alleghanies four 

 or five times between 1818 and 1833 (in Pennsylvania, Mary- 

 land, and the north of Virginia), and also explored the Cum- 

 berland Mountains. 



A few years since, the Peaks of Otter, in Virginia, were 

 visited by Mr. S. B. Buckley ; and still more recently the 

 same botanist has explored the mountains in the upper part 

 of Alabama and Georgia, and the adjacent borders of North 

 Carolina. Among the interesting contributions which the 

 authors of the " Flora of North America " have received from 

 this source, I may here mention the Coreopsis latifolia of 

 Michaux, which had not been found by any subsequent bot- 

 anist until it was observed by Mr. Buckley in the autumn of 

 1840. 



No living botanist, however, is so well acquainted with 

 the vegetation of the southern Alleghany Mountains, or has 

 explored those of North Carolina so extensively, as the Rev. 

 Mr. M. A. Curtis ; who, when resident for a short time in 

 their vicinity, visited, as opportunity occurred, the Table 

 Mountain, Grandfather, the Yellow Mountain, the Roan, the 

 Black Mountain, etc., and subsequently (although prevented 

 by infirm health from making large collections) extended his 

 researches through the counties of Haywood, Macon, and 

 Cherokee, which form the narrow southwestern extremity of 

 North Carolina. To him we are indebted for local informa- 

 tion which greatly facilitated our recent journey, and, indeed, 

 for a complete itinerarium of the region south of Ashe County. 

 But, as the latter county had not been visited by Mr. Curtis, 

 nor so far as we are aware by any other botanist, and being 

 from its situation the most accessible to the traveler from the 

 north, we determined to devote to its examination the princi- 

 pal part of the time allotted to our own excursion. 



