32 ESS A YS. 



known especially to English gardens and collections, by Mr. 

 John Lyon, whose indefatigable researches are highly spoken 

 of by Pursh, Nuttall, and Elliott. It is very probable that he 

 had visited the mountains previous to his assuming the charge 

 of Mr. Hamilton's collections near Philadelphia, which he 

 resigned to Pursh in 1802. At a later period, however, he 

 assiduously explored this region, from Georgia as far north at 

 least as the Grandfather Mountain ; and died at Asheville in 

 Buncombe County, North Carolina, some time between 1814 

 and 1818. I am informed by my friend, the Rev. Mr. Curtis, 

 that his journals and a portion of his herbarium were preserved 

 at Asheville for many years, and that it is probable that they 

 may yet be found. 



Michaux the younger, author of the " Sylva Americana," 

 who accompanied his father in some of his earlier journeys, 

 returned to this country in 1801, and crossed the Alleghany 

 Mountains twice ; first in Pennsylvania on his way to the 

 western States, and the next year in North Carolina on his 

 return to the seaboard. In crossing from Jonesboro', Tennes- 

 see, to Morganton, by way of Toe River (not Doe River as is 

 stated in his Travels), he accidentally stopped at the house of 

 Davenport, his father's guide in these mountains. The obser- 

 vations of the younger Michaux on this part of the Alleghany 

 Mountains, in a chapter of his Travels devoted to that subject, 

 are mainly accurate. 



" In the beginning of 1805," Pursh, as he states in the 

 preface to his Flora, " set out for the mountains and western 

 territories of the southern States, beginning at Maryland and 

 extending to the Carolinas (in which tract the interesting 

 high mountains of Virginia and Carolina took my particular 

 attention), and returning late in the autumn through the 

 lower countries along the seacoast to Philadelphia." This 

 plan, however, was not fully carried out, since he does not 

 appear to have crossed the Alleghanies into the great western 

 valley, nor to have botanized along these mountains farther 

 south than where the New River crosses the valley of Virginia. 

 At any rate, it is certain that the original tickets of his speci- 

 mens in the herbarium of the late Professor Barton, under 



