Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina. 21 



the Valley of Yirginia until we finally crossed the Blue Ridge 

 and quitted the mountain region. Yet we suffered little incon- 

 venience on this account, as we were cordially received at the 

 farm-houses along the road, and entertained according to the 

 means and ability of the owners ; who seldom hesitated either to 

 make a moderate charge, or to accept a proper compensation for 

 their hospitality, which we therefore did not hesitate to solicit, 

 from time to time. On the Iron Mountains, we met with nearly 

 all the species we had collected during the previous day, and with 

 a single additional plant of much interest, viz. the Boykinia aco- 

 nitifolia, Nutt. We found it in the greatest abundance and lux- 

 uriance on the southern side of the mountain, near the summit, 

 along the rocky margins of a small brook, which for a short dis- 

 tance were completely covered with the plant. It here attains 

 the height of two feet or more ; the stems, rising from a thick 

 rhizoma, (and clothed below, as well as the petioles, with decid- 

 uous rusty hairs,) are terminated by a panicle of small cymes, 

 which at first are crowded, but at length are loose, with the flow- 

 ers mostly unilateral. The rather large, pure white petals are 

 deciduous after flowering, not marcescent as in Saxifraga and 

 Heuchera. We did not again meet with this plant ; but Mr. 

 Curtis collected it several years ago near the head of Linville 

 River, and Mr. Buckley obtained it in the mountains of Alabama. 

 It also extends farther north than our own locality ; for, although 

 not described in his Flora, Pursh collected it on the Salt-Pond 

 Mountain in Virginia.* I have little doubt that the Saxifraga 

 Richardsonii would be more correctly transferred to Boykinia, 

 as well as the /S*. ranunciilifolia ; and, since the S. elata of Nut- 

 tall, in Torrey and Gray's Flora, is referred to Boyki7iia occiden- 

 talism in the supplement to that work, no pentandrous Saxifrage 

 remains, except the ambiguous S. Sullivantii, Torr. 6f Gr. 

 But the authors of the Flora, having received fruiting specimens 

 of this interesting plant, do not hesitate to remove it from the 

 genus to which it was provisionally appended, and to dedicate it 



* The specimen in Prof. Barton's herbarium (in fruit), is ticketed by Pursh . • 

 " Heuchera vilLosa, Michx.? Salt-Pond Mountain under the naked knob, near a 

 spring. This spring is the highest I have seen."^ — I know not the exact situation 

 of this mountain, from which Pursh obtained many interesting plants. The 

 Boykinia aconitifolia, I may remark, would be a very desirable plant in cultiva- 

 tion, and might be expected to endure the winter of New York or Philadelphia : 

 it would certainly flourish in England. 



