Tennessee Flora. 15 



wool-like growth, an inch or two long, threadlike, the flowers the 

 size of pin heads, the mountain river weed (Podostemon ah- 

 rotanoides), pondweeds float in long streamers (Patamogeton 

 Jiyhridus, Potamogeton Claytom). An endless variety of shrnb- 

 bery constitutes the undergrowth. The Kalmia (Kalmia lati- 

 folia), worthy companion to the great mountain laurel {Rhodo- 

 dendron maximum), and four azaleas, equally beautiful (the fra- 

 grant clammy azalea), merit the highest praise and are very abun- 

 dant. Various other kinds of the heath family, with white and 

 bell-shaped flowers and evergreen foliage, are characteristic features 

 of the scenery. Foremost, the dense masses of Leucothoe Gaieshcei, 

 a tall shrub with wand-shaped, recurved branches and dense pen- 

 dulous racemes, exhaling the odor of chestnut flowers; Leucothoe 

 recurva, the Andromeda floribunda, and the white alder (Clethra 

 acuminata) , either as bush or small tree, all belong to this type. 



A singular and unparalleled display is reserved for the untiring 

 botanist if he climbs to the highest cliffs of the Chilhowee, from 

 whence at one glance he can survey the whole valley of East Tennes- 

 see until his eye meets, in the smoky distance, the rectilinear course 

 of Walden's Eidge. At an elevation of about 2,500 feet he descries 

 along vertical cliffs of Potsdam sandstone, dense groves of the 

 fringe tree (Chionanthus Virginica), in greater vigor and abun- 

 dance of flowers than he had ever before witnessed. Several rare 

 ferns grow in the crevices, such as the woolly-leafed Cheilanthes 

 (Chil. tomentoso), grayish green on the upper surface and rusty 

 ■colored underneath; the Cheilanthes vestita, of similar habit, but 

 not quite so attractive; the neat little Asplenium Tricho manes and 

 Asplenium montanum. Polpyodium vulgare and incanum and 

 some larger species of Phegopteris and Aspidium abound. Orchids 

 of rare beauty nestle in the deep mold — Bletia aphylla, Goodyera, 

 puhescens, Pogonia ophioglossoides and verticillata, Cypripedium 

 spectahile, acaule and puhescens. 



From the twelfth to the sixteenth mile above Parksville, the 

 ■canon cuts through the highest part of the Big Frog Mountain and 

 opens out into a rugged plateau or basin formed of micaceous, 

 copper-bearing rocks. From Greasy Creek, three miles above 

 Parksville, to the Mundic Bluff, which is within the heart of the 

 great mountain chain, dark-colored, argillaceous or roofing slates, 

 porphyritic from disseminated cubes of pyrites, and grayish mica- 

 <!eous slates build up the towering and grotesque masses and spurs 



