44 ESSAYS. 



this species, the " planta Canadensis " there mentioned is the 

 nearly allied Dracaena borealis of the " Hortus Kewensis." 

 The two species are mixed in Michaux's herbarium ; and, al- 

 though the latter is almost exclusively a northern plant, we 

 found the two species growing together on the Grandfather, 

 Roan, and other high mountains of North Carolina. To- 

 wards the base of the mountain we saw for the first time the 

 Pyrularia of Michaux (Oil-nut, Buffalo-tree, etc. ; Hamil- 

 tonia oleifera, Muhl.) : a low shrub which is not of unfre- 

 quent occurrence in rich, shady soil. Its geographical range 

 extends from the Cherokee country on the confines of Georgia 

 (where the elder Michaux discovered it on his earliest visit 

 to the mountains, and where Mr. Curtis has recently observed 

 it), to the western ranges of the Alleghanies of Pennsylvania 

 in lat. 40°, where it was found by the younger Michaux. 1 It 

 flowers early in the season, and the oleaginous fruit in the 

 specimens we collected had attained the size of a musket-ball. 

 In wet places, on the very borders of North Carolina, but 

 still within Virginia, we first met with Trautvetteria palmata 

 and Diphylleia cymosa ; the former in full flower, the latter 

 in fruit. Trautvetteria, which I doubt not is more nearly 

 allied to Thalictrum than to Cimicifuga or Actaea, was col- 

 lected by Pursh in Virginia, both on the Salt-Pond Mountain 

 and on the Peaks of Otter. The Diphylleia is confined to 

 springy places, and the margins of the shaded mountain 

 brooks, and the rich and deep alluvial soil which is so general 

 throughout these mountains, never occurring perhaps at a 

 lower elevation than three thousand feet above the level of 

 the sea. It is a more striking plant than we had supposed ; 

 the cauline leaves (generally two, but sometimes three in 

 number) being often two feet in diameter, and the radicle, 

 which is obicular and centrally peltate as in Podophyllum, 

 frequently still larger ; so that it is not easy (at this season) 

 to obtain manageable specimens. The branches of the cymes 

 are usually reddish or purple, and the gibbous deep blue and 

 glaucous berries are almost dry when ripe. The latter often 



1 " Travels to the Westward of the Alleghany Mountains," etc. English 

 edition, p. 57, etc. 



