Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina. 33 



greatest profusion on the dripping face of a rocky precipice near 

 our encampment for the night, on the northwestern side of the 

 mountain, five or six hundred feet beneath the highest summit. 

 The vegetation is here so backward, that the Saxifraga leucan- 

 themifolia growing on the brow of this precipice was not yet in 

 blossom, and the Saxifraga erosa, Pursh, hi the wet soil at its 

 base was scarcely out of flower, while at the foot of the moun- 

 tain it had long since shed its seeds. We were therefore enabled 

 to satisfy ourselves that S. erosa belongs to the section Hydatica, 

 and that the ^S*. Wolleana, 7Wr. t^ Gray, from a mountain near 

 Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, is only a variety of this species. 

 Pursh gathered his plant in Virginia, " out of a run near the road 

 from the Sweet Springs to the Union Springs, five miles from 

 the former." But if this species be the Robertsonia micranthi- 

 folia of Haworth's Succulent Plants, as is most probable, and 

 consequently the Aulaxis micranthifolia of this author's subse- 

 quent Enumeration of Saxifragaceous plants, it must have been 

 introduced into the English gardens by Eraser, as early as 1810.* 

 We know not how such a common plant could have escaped the 

 notice of Michaux. Under the name of Lettuce, the leaves are 

 eaten by the inhabitants as a salad. At this place we also saw 

 an Umbelliferous plant not yet in flower, which we believe to 

 be Conioselinwm Canadense, Torr. i^ Gray, (Selinum Cana- 

 dense, Michx.,) a very rare plant in the extreme Northern States 

 and Canada, to which we had supposed it exclusively confined. 

 We found plenty of Cimicifuga Americana, Michx., but were 

 obliged to content ourselves with specimens not yet in flower, 

 and with vestiges of the last year's fruit. It should be collected 

 in September. 



We were also too early in the season for Chelone Lyoni, 

 Pursh, which we found in abundance between the precipice 

 mentioned above and the summit of the mountain, with the 

 flower-buds just beginning to appear. Mr. Curtis remarks thjit 



* The onl}^ important discrepancy respects Haworth's character, " Corolla ir- 

 regularis, petalis 2 inferioribus elongatis divaricantibus gracilioribus," and " Flo- 

 res albi, rubro minute punctati;" while the petals in our plant are very nearly 

 equal and similar, and pure white, except the yellow spot at the base. Aulaxis 

 mala, Haworth, I. c. (of unknown origin,) appears to be the more ordinary and 

 nearly glabrous form of this species. Mr. Don's description of S. erosa, proba- 

 bly drawn from the cultivafed plant, also difi'ers from our plant in several minor 

 points. 



Vol. xLii, No. 1.— Oct.-Dec. 1841. 5 



