154 



which are in many ways the most interesting spots on our rivers, 

 are the very places that are doomed to obliteration first by the 

 commerciaHstic "development" of water-power or navigation, 

 or both — as is planned at Squaw Shoals. The controversy over 

 Niagara Falls is of course familiar to all; and there are other in- 

 stances of the same sort of work in progress in Alabama. At this 

 very time one of the water-power syndicates is threatening to 

 build a dam across Little River at the lower falls on Lookout 

 ^Mountain, a spot noted for the occurrence of such rare plants 

 as Rhododendron catawbiense, Chondrophora virgata, Harperella 



Fig. 4. Patch of Panicum virgatum and Dianthera americana on Squaw Shoals, 

 with small trees at left. 



fluviatilis, the mountain form of Sarracenia flava, and several 

 species chiefly confined to the coastal plain.* 



The greatest loss to science in such cases is not the mutilation 

 of the scenery (the chief contention at Niagara), nor even the 

 destruction of stations for the rare plants, for the same species 



* See Tprreya 6: 114. 1906. 



