Ik 



t 



t 



^ 



33 



in close companionship among the stones. Our trip to Salt 

 Pond Mountain was largely for the purpose of finding 

 Anemone trifolia, and to see it so soon, and in such great 

 quantities, was a pleasure, mingled with surprise that it 

 should have been so long overlooked. (Plate IV.) 



The hotel, a large and comfortable old-fashioned house, 

 was reached at seven. It is 4,000 feet above sea-level, on 

 the edge of a pretty little lake, surrounded on all sides by 

 high forest-covered ridges. On the borders of the lake 

 were dense thickets of Rhododendron maximum and Kalmia 

 latifoUa, to see which, when in flower, must alone be worth 

 the journey to Virginia. Three delightful days were spent 

 on the mountain exploring the woods in all directions. 



compared it with one of Mr. Canby*s. Both he and I had concluded that 

 it was distinct from A. nemarosa. It occurs very abundantly in dry or rocky 

 situations on all the higher parts of Salt Pond Mountain except the extreme, 

 unwooded summit, growing often from between rocks, and varying from 6' to 

 % i8' or even more in height. It is thus very different in habit and habitat 



from the widely distributed plant of low altitudes, which has been by nearly all 

 recent authors referred to A, nemorosa, L., of the Old World, but which I have 

 maintained is specifically distinct, as did Linnaeus and Barton. (See Bulle- 

 tin, xvii., 123.) Up to the present time I have been unable to learn of the 

 occurrence of true A, nenwrosa in North America. A, trifolia is readily distin- 

 guished from either by its greater size, different habitat, isolated geographical 

 distribution at high altitudes, its proportionately broader and thicker leaflets, 

 larger flower, more numerous akenes, and the majority of its root-leaves 

 being on!y 3-divided, while those of ^. pdnquefoUa are almost always. 5-di- 

 vided. Some plants of ^. trifolia were found with the root-leaves 4, 5 and 



r 



even 6-divided, however. A. qtiinquefolia also blooms much earlier. It is 

 interesting to note the occurrence here of Convallaria majalis^ also a Euro- 

 pean plant, and in America equally restricted in range to the higher 

 southern mountains. A. qidnquejolia was found plentifully along brooks 

 and in moist places lower down on the mountain, but I found that I could 

 always distinguish the two species. That they are, however, very closely 

 allied there can be no question, but they are as distinct as many other 

 Ranunculaceous plants commonly regarded as different species. 



About half-way down the Peaks of Otter, along the road to Buchanan, we 

 found a large patch of the plant, still stouter and with larger and broader 

 leaflets than any noticed on the other mountain. At this lower altitude 

 vegetation was much further advanced, and the fruit had entirely fallen 

 from the plants collected at this locality. Careful search revealed no A, 

 quinquefolia in the vicinity. — N. L. B. 



