2 Botanical Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina. 



Cherokee country, in the spring of 1776. In this journey, he as- 

 cended the Seneca or Keowee River, one of the principal sources 

 of the Savannah, and crossing the mountains which divide its 

 waters from those of the Tennessee, he continued his travels 

 along the course of the latter to the borders of the present State of 

 Tennessee. Finding that his researches could not safely be ex- 

 tended in that direction, after exploring some of the higher moun- 

 tains in the neighborhood, he retraced his steps to the Savannah 

 River, proceeding thence through Georgia and Alabama to Mobile. 

 His well-known and very interesting volume of Travels,* contains 

 numerous observations upon the botany of these regions, with oc- 

 casional popular descriptions, and in a few cases Latin characters 

 of some remarkable plants ; as, for example, the Rhododendon 

 pimctatinn (which he calls R. ferrugineurn), Stuartia pentagyna 

 (under the name of S. montana), Azalea calendulacea (which he 

 terms A. flammea), Trautvetieria^ which he took for a new spe- 

 cies of Hydrastris, Magnolia auriculata, &c. He also notices 

 the remarkable intermixture of the vegetation of the north and 

 south, which occurs in this portion of the mountains; where 

 Halesia, Styrax, Stuartia, and Gelse'mium.,-\ (although the lat- 

 ter "is killed by a very slight frost in the open air in Pennsylva- 

 nia,") are seen flourishing by the side of the birches, maples, and 

 firs of Canada. 



] should next mention the name of Andre Michaux, who, at 

 an early period, amidst difficulties and privations of which few 

 can now form an adequate conception, explored our country from 

 Hudson's Bay to Florida, and westward to the Mississippi, more 

 extensively than any subsequent botanist. A few of his plants 

 have not yet been rediscovered, and a considerable number 

 remain among the rarest and least known species of the Uni- 

 ted States ; it may therefore be useful to give a somewhat par- 

 ticular account of his peregrinations, especially through the moun- 

 tain region which he so diligently explored, and in which he 



* Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, 

 the Cherokee country, 8fC. ; by William Bartram. Philadelphia, 1791. 



t Ur. Torrey has directed my attention to an unaccountable mistake into which 

 the learned Endlicher must have fallen, in describing the fruit of Gclscmivvi, par- 

 ticularly in the supplement to his Genera Plantarum (p. J3P6), where it is estab- 

 lished as a new tribe of Jlpocynaccm, and a fruit of two follicles, as well as comose 

 seeds, attributed to it! So far as they extend, the characters given by Jussieu and 

 Richard are correct. 



