BOTANICAL EXCURSION TO NORTH CAROLINA. 59 



The only unwooded portion of the ridge which we ascended, 

 an exposed rock a few yards in extent, presents a truly Alpine 

 aspect, being clothed with lichens and mosses, and with a 

 dense mat of the mountain Leiophyllum, a stunted and much 

 branched shrub (five to ten inches high), with small coria- 

 ceous leaves greatly resembling Azalea procumbens. 1 The 

 much denser growth, and the broader, more petiolate, and 

 perhaps uniformly opposite leaves, as well as the very differ- 

 ent habitat, would seem to distinguish the mountain plant 

 from the L. buxifolium of the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, 

 etc. ; but although I think the learned De Candolle has cor- 

 rectly separated the former, under the name of L. serpyllifo- 

 lium (Ledum serpyllifolium, L'Her. ined.), it is not easy to 

 find sufficient and entirely constant distinctive characters ; 

 since the sparse scabrous puburluence of the capsule may also 

 be observed upon the ovary of the low-country plant, in which 

 the leaves are likewise not unfrequently opposite ; and no 

 reliance can be placed on the length of the pedicels. The 

 synonymy requires some correction ; the Ledum buxifolium 

 of Michaux (" in summis montibus excelsis Carolina^"), and 

 of Nuttall, so far as respects the plant which " is extremely 

 abundant on the highest summits of the Catawba Ridge," (that 

 is, on Table Mountain,) as well as the Leiophyllum buxifolium 

 of Elliott (from the mountains of Greenville district, South 

 Carolina), must be referred to L. serpyllifolium, DC. We 

 were too late to obtain the plant in blossom, excepting one 

 or two straggling specimens ; but we were so fortunate as to 

 obtain a few flowering specimens of Rhododendron Cataw- 

 biense. 



I should have remarked, that so much time was occupied in 

 the ascent of this mountain as nearly to prevent us from her- 

 borizing around the summit for that day; since we had to 

 descend some distance to the nearest spring of water, and pre- 

 pare our encampment for the night. The branches of the 



1 We are confident that the latter does not grow on the Grandfather 

 Mountain, as is stated by Pursh, on the authority of a specimen collected 

 by Lyon ; and have little doubt that he mistook for it this species of 

 Leiophyllum. Vide Pursh, " Flora Amer. Sept." i. pp. 154, 301. 



