16 Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina. 



uriance. With these, the plant we collected entirely accords, 

 except that the leaves are mostly smaller, and more deeply lobed ; 

 but this character is not constant.* Soon after leaving Natural 

 Bridge, we observed indigenous trees of the Honey Locust, 

 ( Gleditschia triacanthos,) also JEsculus Pavia 7 and, in crossing 

 valley of James River, we noticed the Papaw ( Uvai^ia triloba,^ 

 and Negundo. The road-side was almost everywhere occupied 

 with Verhesina SiegesbecMa, not yet in flower ; and in many 

 places with Melissa [Calamintha) Nepeta^ which Mr. Bentham 

 has not noticed as an American plant, although Pursh has it as a 

 native of the country. It was, however, doubtless introduced 

 from Europe, but is cmnpletely naturalized in the Valley of Vir- 

 ginia, in Tennessee, and in North Carolina east of the Blue 

 Ridge. 



On Tuesday, the 29th of June, we crossed the New River, 

 arrived at Wytheville, or Wythe Court House, towards evening ; 

 and at Marion, or Smythe Court House, on the Middle Fork of 

 the Holston, early the next morning. The vegetation of this 

 elevated region is almost entirely similar to that of the Northern 

 States. The only herbaceous plants we noticed, as we passed 

 rapidly along, which we had not seen growing before, were Ga- 

 lax aphylla, and Silene Virginica, : the showy deep red flowers 

 of the latter, no less than the diflerent habitus, caused us to won- 

 der how it could ever have been confounded with the Northern 

 ^. Pennsylvanica. The only forest-tree with which we were 

 not previously familiar, was the large Buckeye, (j^sculus Jlava,) 

 which abounds in this region, and attains the height of sixty to 

 ninety feet, and the diameter of two to three feet or more at the 

 base. 



At Marion, we determined to leave the valley road, and to 

 cross the mountains into Ashe county, North Carolina; the morn- 

 ing was occupied in seeking a conveyance for this purpose. 

 With considerable difiiculty we at length procured a carry-all, 



* Much to our disappointment we did not meet with Heuchera hispida, although 

 I have since learned from an inspection of Barton's herbarium, that we passed 

 within a moderate distance of the place where Pursh discovered it. The habitat 

 given on the original ticket, " High Mountains beticeen Fincastle and the Sweet 

 Springs, and some other similar places,'' we here cite, with the hope that it may- 

 guide some botanist to its re-discovery. The habitat in Pursh's Flora, " High 

 mountains of Virginia and Carolina," is probably a mere guesa, so far as relates to 

 the latter State. 



