54 



went over the summit of Cold Mountain, a sharp peak between 

 the two forks, whose altitude is given by Buckley * as 6,105 ^^^t, 

 and on the topographic maps of the United States Geological 

 Survey as between 6,000 and 6,100 feet. From Waynesville I 

 also walked the railroad to Balsam, about eight miles southwest- 

 ward and just over the line in Jackson County. This is about 

 3,300 feet above sea level, and is said to be the highest railroad 

 station east of the Rocky Mountains, 



Although a great deal of botanical work has been done in these 

 far-famed North Carolina mountains ever since they were visited 

 by Bartram and Michaux in the latter part of the i8th century, 

 it has been mostly mere collecting, and the publications result- 

 ing from it, with very few exceptions, have been either works 

 relating to trees only, notes on selected species, or narratives 

 dealing with the flora or scenery rather than with the vegetation. 

 So perhaps an attempt to classify the habitats of a small but typ- 

 ical portion of the mountain region, and arrange the species in 

 each according to structure, relative abundance, etc., will not 

 involve too much duphcation of previous publications. Although 

 the time I spent in Haywood County was very short, and I col- 

 lected no specimens (so that some of my identifications are in- 

 complete or uncertain), some of the generalizations which follow 

 may be just as true as if they were based on a broader founda- 

 tion, and some comparisons with other regions may be of interest. 



As is well known to geographers, the mountains of North 

 Carolina are as near normal as any in North America, having 

 been brought to their present form almost entirely by erosion, 

 with few or no complications due to faulting, unequal hardness 

 of strata, glaciation, solution (e. g., of limestone), volcanic action, 

 etc. The topographic forms are consequently comparatively 

 simple, consisting chiefly of ridges and valleys, most of them 

 sloping equally on both sides and running in every possible 

 direction, the former with sharp crests undulating but scarcely 

 serrate, and the latter steep, rocky, and V-shaped toward their 

 heads and broader, smoother, and more level lower down. 

 There are no caves, sinks, natural lakes, islands, or cut-offs, and 



*Am. Jour. Sci. II. 27^: 287. 1859. 



