ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN FLORA. 565 



have lost some of its botanical attractions. But large tracts are still 

 nearly in a state of nature. Drosera filiformis, so unlike any European 

 species, and the beautiful sabbatias, the yellow-fringed orchises, lach- 

 nanthes and lophiola, the larger xyrises and eriocaulons, the curious 

 grass amphicarpum with cleistogamous flowers at the root, the showy 

 species of chrysopsis, and many others must still abound. And every 

 botanist will wish to collect schizaea pusilla, rarest, most local, and among 

 the smallest of ferns. 



If only the season would allow it, there is a more southern station of 

 special interest, — Wilmington, on the coast of North Carolina. Car- 

 nivorous plants have, of late years, excited the greatest interest, both 

 popular and scientific, and here, of all places, carnivorous plants seem to 

 have their most varied development. For this is the only and the very 

 local home of dionoea ; here grow almost all the North American species 

 of drosera : here, near by, are most of the species of sarracenia, of the 

 bladder-bearing utricularias, — one of which the President of our sec- 

 tion has detected in fish-catching, — and also the largest species of pin- 

 guicula. 



But at this season a more enjoyable excursion may be made to the 

 southern portion of the Alleghany or Appalachian mountains, which 

 separate the waters of the Atlantic tiide from those of the Mississippi. 

 These mountains are now easily reached from Philadelphia. In Pennsyl- 

 vania, where they consist of parallel ridges without peaks or crests, and 

 are of no great height, they are less interesting botanically than in 

 Virginia ; but it is in North Carolina and the adjacent borders of 

 Tennessee that they rise to their highest altitude, and take on more pic- 

 turesque forms. On their sides the Atlantic forest, especially its deciduous- 

 leaved portion, is still to be seen to greatest advantage, nearly in pristine 

 condition, and composed of a greater variety of genera and species than in 

 any other temperate region, excepting Japan. And in their shade are the 

 greatest variety and abundance of shrubs, and a good share of the most 

 peculiar herbaceous genera. This is the special home of our rhododen- 

 drons, azaleas, and kalmias ; at least here they flourish in greatest 

 number and in most luxuriant growth. Rhododendron maximum (which 

 is found in a scattered way even as far north as the vicinity of Montreal) 

 and kalmia latifolia (both called laurels) even become forest trees in some 

 places ; more commonly they are shrubs, forming dense thickets on steep 

 mountain-sides, through which the traveller can make his way only by 

 following old bear-paths, or by keeping strictly on the dividing crests of 

 the leading ridges. 



Only on the summits do we find rhododendron catawbiense, parent 

 of so many handsome forms in English grounds, and on the higher 

 wooded slopes the yellow and the flame-coloured azalea calendulacea ; on 

 the lower, the pink A. nudiflora and more showy A. arborescens, along 

 with the common and widespread A. viscosa. The latter part of June is 

 the proper time to explore this region, and, if only one portion can be 

 visited, Roan Mountain should be preferred. 



On these mountain tops we meet with a curious anomaly in geo- 

 graphical distribution. With rarest exceptions, plants which are common 

 to this country and to Europe extend well northward. But on these 

 summits from southern Virginia to Carolina, yet nowhere else, we find — 

 undoubtedly indigenous and undoubtedly identical with the European 

 species — the lily-of-the-valley. 



