Tennessee Flora. 17 



At this altitude, from camp to summit, from 3,500 to near 5,000 

 feet, the reduction of mean temperature corresponds about with the 

 mean temperature of the latitude of Northern Ohio, a difference of 

 eight degrees of latitude. Various shrubs and herbaceous plants, 

 which are indigenous to the latter region, and do not now inhabit 

 the intervening territory, luxuriate in this cool and cloud-enveloped 

 zone. The glory of the prairies has passed away in the Middle and 

 Northern States, but their untainted splendor survives here in these 

 untrodden mountain meadows, although very limited in extent. 

 Trees become scarce and more scattered, with great bald spaces 

 between, with very low trunks in proportion to size of limb and 

 crown. The chestnuts ramify so close to the ground that the lower 

 limbs can be grasped with the hand. The varieties on the summit 

 are chestnut, red oak, yellow birch, mountain maple (Acer spica- 

 tum,) mountain ash (Pyrus Americana), white and red cherry 

 (Prunus Pennsylvanica) , and chock cherry (Prunus Virginiana). 

 Of shrubs, we find the round-leafed currant (Rihes rotundifolium) , 

 two or three species of blueberries {Vaccinium hirsutum and Penn- 

 sylvanicum), the creeping wintergreen (GauUheria procumhens) , 

 arborescent azalea {Azalea, arhorescens) , Stuartia (Stuartia pen- 

 tagyna), and two species of holly {Ilex monticola and Ilex mollis), 

 and a low, grayish willow {Salix humilis). 



The gems of this great conservatory, however, are the herba- 

 ceous plants, which thrive here with unusual vigor. The Carolina 

 lily, with stems seven feet high, surrounded by a pyramidal raceme 

 of deep orange and black-spotted blossoms, often as many as 

 twenty-five, is very abundant ; likewise the Melanthium Virginicum, 

 five to six feet high, with hundreds of small, star-shaped, cream- 

 colored flowers in an immense spreading panicle ; the Stenanthium 

 augtistifoUum, also a liliaceous plant, resembling the former, flow- 

 ers greenish white, in a tall raceme ; the purple flowering raspberry 

 {Rubus odoratus), with simple five-lobed leaves and corymbs of 

 large, showy, purple blossoms, the whole plant very fragrant and 

 clammy. The cow parsnip {Heracleum lanatum) spreads its large 

 and woolly leaves broadly over the ground, and lifts its flat umbels 

 above a man's head. White and yellow Baptisias and the Oswego 

 tea {Monarda didyma) contribute freely to this unsurpassable dis- 

 play. The blue joint grass {Calamagrostis Canadensis) and the 

 Mulilenbergia Willdetiovii are the principal grasses, both tall and 



