Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina. 13 



stopped to dine, and were therefore disappointed in our hope of 

 collecting Sedinn telephioides, S. pulchellum, Paronychia dicho- 

 toma, and Draha ra7nosissima, all of which grow here upon the 

 rocks. We observed the first in passing, but it was not yet in 

 flower. On the rocky banks of the Potomac below Harper's 

 Ferry, we saw for the first time the common Locust-tree [Robi- 

 nia Pseudacacia) decidedly indigenous. It probably extends to 

 the southern confines of Pennsylvania ; and from this point south 

 it is every where abundant, but we did not meet with it east of 

 the Blue Ridge. From Winchester, the shire-town of Frederick 

 County, we proceeded by stage-coach dueciXj up the Valley of 

 Virginia, d^s that portion of the State is called which lies between 

 the unbroken Blue Ridge and the most easterly ranges of the 

 Alleghanies. From the Potomac to the sources of the Shenan- 

 doah, it is strictly speaking a valley, from twenty to thirty miles 

 in width, with a strong, chiefly limestone soil of great fertility. 

 It is scarcely interrupted, indeed, up to where the Roanoke rises ; 

 but a branch of the Alleghanies intervenes between the latter 

 and New River, as the upper part of the Great Kenhawa is term- 

 ed, from which point it loses its character in some degree, and is 

 exclusively traversed by the western waters. The same valley 

 extends to the north and east through Maryland and Pennsylva- 

 nia, and even into the state of New York, preserving throughout 

 the same geological character and fertile soil. Our first day's ride 

 was to Harrisonburg, in Rockingham County, a distance of sixty 

 nine miles from Winchester. From the moment we entered the 

 valley, we observed such immense quantities oi Echiu'tnvulgare, 

 that we were no longer surprised at the doubt expressed by Pursh 

 whether it were really an introduced plant. This "vile foreign 

 weed," as Dr. DarHngton, agriculturally speaking, terms this showy 

 plant, is occasionally seen along the road-side in the Northern 

 States ; but here, for the distance of more than a hundred miles, 

 it has taken complete possession, even of many cultivated fields, 

 especially where the limestone approaches the surface, presenting 

 a broad expanse of brilliant blue. It is surprising that the farm- 

 ers should allow a biennial like this so completely to overrun the 

 land. Another plant much more extensively introduced here 

 than in the north, (where it scarcely deserves the name of a nat- 

 uralized species,) is Bupleurum rotimdifolium, which in the 

 course of the day we met with abundantly. The Marubium 



