388 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 234. 



Notes on the Flora of Smythe Count}', Virginia. 



III. 



POPULAR tradition declares that tlie distance from Marion 

 to White Top Summit is twenty-eight miles, and even the 

 most hardened mountaineer calls it the very worst road in the 

 state, and looks upon the ascent of the mountain as an achieve- 

 ment for a lifetime. Most of the residents of Marion took 

 what they called "that 'ere company " for a party of full-fledged 

 lunatics, when they learned that we meditated its ascent a 

 second time, having already spent three nights upon the 

 summit. 



Our traveling outfit consisted of two wagons — one fairly 

 strong, drawn by a team of good horses, the other bearing a 

 perilous resemblance to the "deacon's one-hoss shay" toward 

 the close of its magic century. The team, however, was good, 

 though the driverwas not a man of brilliant intellect. Neither 

 of the men, born and bred in Marion, had ever been on the 

 mountains, and both would infinitely have preferred to stay at 

 home. 



It was on a dull day during the last week in May that we 

 started. The road was passably good till we began the ascent 

 of Iron Mountain, which was crossed at an altitude of over 

 three thousand feet in a driving hail-storm. Along the gap, 

 among the Hemlocks, there was a small grove of White Pine 

 and beautiful thickets of Rhododendron Catawbiense inter- 

 mingled with Mountain Maples (Acer spicatum), Striped Maples 

 (A. Pennsylvanicum) and great hedges of the lu.\uriant Purple- 

 flowering Raspberry (Rubus odoratus). 



The road on the descent of Iron IMountain winds for two or 

 three miles along White Top-tree Creek ; the many small 

 brooks that feed it run through dense forests consisting for 

 the most part of Hemlock. Some of the trees are magnificent 

 specimens, three to four feet or even more in diameter, and 

 tower above everything else in the gloomy ravine, where 

 Rhododendron maximum made an impenetrable tangle, 

 individual plants being over twenty-five feet in height and 

 tree-like in character. Kalmia latifolia was there also in great 

 abundance, quite respectable little trees, with the gnarled, pic- 

 turesque aspect of old Apple-trees. At that season, however, 

 the only conspicuous tree in fiower was Magnolia Fraseri. 

 Many of them must have exceeded the fifty feet given 

 as their height in Gray's Manual, for in some instances 

 they seemed to rival the giant Hemlocks themselves. 

 Tliese made a picture to be remembered long. All along 

 the gorge the straight, slim Magnolias, their light green 

 leaves glistening with the rain-drops from the sudden shower, 

 stood out in such clear outline against their dark evergreen 

 background that each graceful, perfect flower seemed con- 

 scious of its beauty. For several miles at each turn of the 

 road we saw a series of lovely tree-groups, and though, of 

 course, there were many other interesting and remarkable 

 trees. Chestnuts, Maples, Oaks and Tulips, the remembrance is 

 only of the Hemlocks and Magnolias. 



At a fork of the road we missed the right turning, and in 

 consequence had to endiu'e six miles, instead of two, of the 

 roughest of corduroy roads ; our "one-hoss shay," unlike its 

 famous prototype, breaking down on an average every two 

 hours. We were unable to reach the mountain that night, 

 and took refuge in a small wayside inn near Green Cove on 

 the North Carolina border, some twelve miles by the road 

 from the top. 



Near the spring where our hostess kept her milk-pans and 

 great stone jars of butter, we found an antique Kalmia that 

 has survived many winters. It was about twenty-five feet tall, 

 and at six inches from the ground measured seven feet and 

 two inches ; at one foot from the ground four feet and three 

 inches in circumference. It was not yet in bloom, but its 

 magnificent proportions compelled our admiration. 



Among the plants not collected before, nearer Marion, was 

 Phacelia fimbriata, with charming little white flowers, a 

 smaller and more de4icate species than P. Purshii. With it 

 along a little mountain stream was the tiny spring beauty, 

 Claytonia Caroliniana, in fruit. The woods were all second 

 growth, and, with few exceptions, large trees were seldom 

 seen. A thousand feet or so below the summit we passed 

 through a belt of Spruce-trees growing in a deep black loam 

 bog. Clintonia umbellata grew there in great beds and was at 

 its best ; C. borealis was just beginning to show its pretty green 

 bells, and unusually large specimens of the yellow Adder's- 

 tongue (Erythronium Americanimi) were still blooming. 

 Streptopus roseus, with its tiny rosy bells, was plentiful ; the 

 delicate white Thalictrum clavatum grew along every little 

 .rill and ditch, as did also a particularly large and handsome 

 swamp form of Viola cucullata. 



Of all the swamp flowers, however, the most conspicuous 

 and luxuriant was Anemone trifolia. This charming little 

 plant, so long confounded with A. nemorosa, has rather an in- 

 teresting history, which has recently been published by Dr. 

 Britton in one of the Meinoirs of the Torrey Club. It was col- 

 lected twenty-five years or more ago by Mr. Canby on the Salt 

 Pond Mountain, and again by Mr. Curtiss on the Peaks of Otter. 

 It had been considered a distinct species, but on comparing it 

 with the European A. trifolia it was found to be identical, and 

 republished as such. Two years ago we found it in great 

 abundance in flower and fruit in the localities mentioned 

 above, and all through the higher altitudes of the Smythe 

 County mountains we found it this year in even greater quan- 

 tities, and especially fine in the great swamp on White Top. 

 The plant stands mostly six to eight inches high, and sometimes 

 even higher, and has in every way larger and coarser leaves 

 and larger flowers than the frail little Wood Anemone of the 

 northern lowland woods. 



The Spruces were neither very old nor very large trees, and 

 their very ancient appearance was caused by the luxuriance of 

 the moss and lichen crop with which their trunks and branches 

 were covered. Above the Spruce-swamp, on the edge of the 

 road, stood a venerable Birch, one of the remains of the older 

 forest on the inountain — a great gnarled old trunk that meas- 

 ured at three feet from the ground within two inches of twenty- 

 three feet in circumference. Some twenty feet or more from 

 the ground the main trunk was separated into four great erect 

 branches, each a large tree in itself. 



Range after range of billowy forest-clad mountain-tops of 

 ever-increasing height, with the Roan and Grandfather moun- 

 tains for a somewhat hazy background against a cloudless mid- 

 day sky, was the sight that greeted us as we came out of the 

 woods on to the great open field at an altitude of over 5,600 

 feet. The mountain-slope was not precipitous, but the great 

 semicircle of North Carolina mountains lay apparently just at 

 our feet. The grassy, rocky field, many acres in extent, the 

 grazing-ground of many cattle, spreads right and left of the 

 little group of cabins, where we stayed that night. The actual 

 summit is covered with a dense forest of Black Spruce (Picea 

 nigra). The grass is strewn with Violets and little low Straw- 

 berry-blossoms, and above, near the trees, the dainty little 

 Carolina Claytonia was blooming, while the fragrant Trail- 

 ing Arbutus still lingered in the dense shade. Under the 

 Spruces we walked nearly knee-deep in luxuriant mosses, and 

 the Cryptogamic collection was very large and most interest- 

 ing. On the topmost cliff Rhododendron Catawbiense hardly 

 showed signs of color on its great buds, though along the val- 

 leys we had collected and seen it in bloom for a couple of 

 weeks. From those rocks we saw three white-flowered shrubs 

 and trees blooming in the valley below : Amelanchier Cana- 

 densis, the Service-berry of the natives, its fruit already tinged 

 with red ; the Wild Red Cherry (Prunus Pennsylvanica), a 

 graceful little tree covered with slender-pedicelled, delicate 

 white blossoms, and the crowning glory of the whole, the 

 Hobble-bush (Viburnum lantanoides), its great Hydrangea-like 

 creamy cymes shining among the dark evergreens "like a 

 good deed in a naughty world." 



Some of the moss-covered boulders were overgrown with 

 clumps of the Fetid Currant (Ribes prostratum),a pretty shrub 

 notwithstanding its rather forbidding name, which, however, 

 is well merited. 



Early the next day we started on the return trip by a shorter 

 and somewhat better road. On the south-east side of the 

 mountain the white Baneberry (Actsea alba), the Blue Cohosh 

 (Caulophyllum thalictroides), with strange, inconspicuous little 

 greenish and brownish flowers, and the Umbrella-leaf (Diphyl- 

 leia cymosa) had for a distance complete possession of the 

 woods. The Diphylleia is a tall, handsome plant, with large, 

 coarse, roundish peltate leaves and small cymes of white flow- 

 ers with bright golden-yellow stamens. Along the road two 

 yellow Umbelliferous plants were abundant, the small Zizia 

 Bebbii, and the larger, more showy Thaspium barbinode. At 

 a somewhat lower altitude we found a thicket of Menziesia 

 globularis, with what in the Manual is called Vaccinium 

 corymbosum, var. pallidum. The Blueberry is a slender 

 shrub, with flat, spreading, very light green leaved branches 

 and very full clusters of greenish white bells. The Pipe-vine 

 (Aristolochia Sipho) grew high over shrubs and up on trees, 

 and was covered with its strange little brown flowers. 



During the latter part of the descent we were caught in an- 

 other storm, and reached Marion at nightfall in a drenched 

 condition. The luxuriance and almost abnormal growth of the 

 mountain vegetation are not to be wondered at when the 

 rainfall is taken into consideration. The day without a thunder- 

 storm or sudden, short sliovver was a rarity, and a three days' 



