» 
xT. 73.] TO SIR EDWARD FRY. T57 
with friends in the heart of the city, —a city which 
never cools at night, as it does hereabouts. I bore the 
heat well, as my manner is; Mrs. Gray, fairly, by 
keeping quiet through the mornings and giving her- 
self rather to the evening receptions, which were fine 
and most admirably managed. It grew cooler the 
moment the week was over and the session ended. 
Besides, we moved at once into a cooler region. It 
was arranged that I should lead any British botanists 
that cared to go on an excursion into the mountains of 
Virginia and Carolina. But they were otherways 
bound, so that I could take only my friend Mr. John 
Ball of London, your fellow F. R. S., taking also 
another American botanist, with whom we had visited 
these regions more than once before, and, to make it 
pleasanter, we added three ladies, wives and daugh- 
ters of botanists, Mrs. Gray being one. 
Our first day’s journey was to Luray, in the Valley 
of Virginia, between the Blue Ridge and the proper 
Alleghanies. The next day we visited the Cavern, 
which I think is the finest in the world, not forgetting 
that of Adelsberg in Styria. It is newly discovered, 
with wonderful wealth and beauty of stalactical for- 
mations, and is lighted up for visitors with electrical 
lights in all the larger chambers. That day we went 
on to the Natural Bridge, which we had not seen for 
many years. It was grander than I had remembered ; 
indeed, it and the scenery around is worth a voyage 
and a journey to see. Then we went on to our favor- 
ite Roan Mountain, on the borders of North Caro- 
lina and Tennessee, one of the highest in the Atlantic 
United States, and the finest; the base and sides 
richly wooded with large deciduous forest trees in un- 
usual variety even for this country, the ample grassy 
