12 Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina. 



his memory, and acknowledges the important services which he 

 had rendered to that work during its progress. 



The name of Rafinesque should also be mentioned in this con- 

 nexion ; since that botanist crossed the Alleghanies four or five 

 times between 1818 and 1833, (in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and 

 the north of Yirginia,) and also explored the Cumberland Moun- 

 tains. 



A few years since, the Peaks of Otter, in Yirginia, were visi- 

 ted by Mr. S. B. Buckley; and still more recently the same bot- 

 anist has explored the mountains in the upper part of Alabama 

 and Georgia, and the adjacent borders of North Carolina. Among 

 the interesting contributions which the authors of the Flora of 

 North America have received from this source, I may here men- 

 tion the Coreopsis latifolia of Michaux, which had not been 

 found by any subsequent botanist, until it was observed by Mr. 

 Buckley in the autumn of 1840. 



No living botanist, however, is so well acquainted with the 

 vegetation of the southern Alleghany Mountains, or has explored 

 those of North Carohna so extensively, as the Rev. Mr. M. A. 

 Curtis ; who, when resident for a short time in their vicinity, 

 visited as opportunity occurred, the Table Mountain, Grandfather, 

 the Yellow Mountain, the Roan, the Black Mountain, &c., and 

 subsequently (although prevented by infirm health from making 

 large collections) extended his researches through the counties of 

 Haywood, Macon, and Cherokee, which form the narrow south- 

 western extremity of North Carolina. To him we are indebted 

 for local information which greatly facilitated our recent journey, 

 and, indeed, for a complete itinerarium of the region south of Ashe 

 County. But, as the latter county had not been visited by Mr. 

 Curtis, nor so far as we are aware by any other botanist, and be- 

 ing from its situation the most accessible to a traveller from the 

 north, we determined to devote to its examination the principal 

 part of the time allotted to our own excursion. 



Intending to reach this remote region by way of the Valley of 

 Virginia, we left New York on the evening of the 22d of June, 

 and travelling by rail-road, reached Winchester, a distance of 

 three hundred miles, before sunset of the following day. At 

 Harper's Ferry, where the Potomac, joined by the Shenandoah, 

 forces its way through the Blue Ridge, in the midst of some of 

 the most picturesque scenery in the United States, we merely 



