SerTEMBER 14, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



437 



might succeed in propagating our neat yellow-flowered shrub 

 Poppy, and introducing it at home and abroad, would have 

 done tloriculture a great favor. A demand for tliis, equal to 

 that which has been created for its more pretentious ally, 

 Romneya, would surely follow. The seeds of Dendromecon, 

 like those of Romneya, probably require a long time to ger- 

 minate. From seeds sent to England by David Douglas sixty 

 vears ago a few plants were produced, all of which are said 

 to have been killed by the severe winter of 1837-8. I think 

 that no subsequent attempts at cultivating it have been suc- 

 cessful there, if, indeed, any have been made. In California 

 I have never Ijeen able to record the germination of a single 

 seed, whether sown in garden or greenhouse. 

 University of California. Edward L. Greene. 



Notes on the Flora of Stnythe County, Virginia. — V. 



THE aspect of the country north of Marion was strangely 

 different from that of the district on the North Carolina 

 border. Walker JNIountain, the first range of hills on the left 

 bank of the Middle Fork of the Holston, a straight, level, 

 almost unbroken mountain-range, is covered with a young 

 forest, which, though hardly as beautiful as the wilder ones 

 across the river, was not, however, lacking in interest. Innu- 

 merable little brooks danced and sparkled down through the 

 dells and valleys, each of which had more or less distinct 

 features, and often a flora of its own. This was especially 

 marked in the cryptogamic collection that we made. Some- 

 times a tiny Moss or Liverwort would grow on the stones of a 

 little water-course, which, even with careful search, could not 

 be found elsewhere. One quite large stream, in spite of its odd 

 name, Hungry's Mother Creek, was a very attractive feature in 

 the landscape, flowing between tall cliffs and broad meadow- 

 lands, the cliffs covered with a luxuriant growth of Ferns, 

 and the meadow-lands filled with tall Grasses and Sedges and 

 bordered with high tangles of superb Blackberry-vines, the 

 flowers of some of which were remarkable for their strong re- 

 semblance to Apple-blossoms. They were very large, with 

 the outer surface of the white petals a bright rosy pink. In 

 one of the meadows we found the tall pale lilac-blue spikes of 

 the Wild Hyacinth, or Eastern Camass (Camassia Fraseri), and 

 along the shady hedges the very local Hydrastis Canadensis, 

 a plant with a coarse broad leaf and very inconspicuous 

 flowers and fruit, grew with quantities of Polemonium reptans 

 for its companion. 



On the rather barren mountain beyond we found an interest- 

 ing form of the Dwarf Thorn (Crataegus parvifolia) not more 

 than four feet high, with thick bright green glossy leaves ; the 

 rather large white flowers growing in clusters of two and three, 

 and remarkable for the multiplicity of their petals, some of 

 them having as many as fifteen. Higher on the mountain 

 CratiEgus coccinea grew in great abundance, and with it its 

 so-called variety, macracantha, the leaves of which are broader 

 and darker than those of the type, and havingapparently a more 

 spreading habit of the branches. Pinus pungens, the Table- 

 mountain Pine, covered with its many generations of large cones, 

 was occasionally seen, but the Scrub Pine (P. inops) was the 

 common Pine of the range. In the woods Euphorbia corollata 

 was just commg into bloom, and Ligustrina actjetfolium, a 

 coarse umbelliferous plant, grew side by side with some very 

 tall and beautiful Meadow Rue (Thalictrum purpurascens). 



The golden Coreopsis senifolia, van stellata, was seen scat- 

 tered in small groups, a most effective plant. Aletris farinosa 

 was with it, though not in abundance. Galax aphylla covered 

 the ground in places, and was always pretty with its light green 

 glossy leaves and slender white spikes. Near the top of the 

 mountain, clumps of Tephrosia Virginiana, with yellowish, 

 pink and purple pea-like flowers, were conspicuous. The bare 

 reddish sandstone ledges on the top of the mountain were 

 decorated with innumerable pretty white stars of a Saxifrage 

 and quantities of Ferns and many Grasses. Hydrangea arbor- 

 escens was flowering, its broad white cymes having somewhat 

 the aspect of thoseof Viburnum lantanoides, though the flowers 

 were by no means so handsome nor so large. Heuchera pubes- 

 cens was with the Saxifrage on the rocks, and along the banks of 

 the road which descended into the valleys of the North Fork of 

 the Holston River we passed through great hedges of the 

 pretty pink-belled Apocynum androsjemifolium. In the 

 woods three Milkweeds were in bloom — the greenish Poke 

 Milkweed (Asclepias phytolaccoides), A. variegata, a hand- 

 some plant with white flowers, and A. obtusifolia, with rather 

 dull purple and greenish flowers. Near the river and in open 

 fields the gorgeous Butterfly-weed (A. tuberosa) made bril- 

 liant orange spots in the landscape. The shallow borders of 

 the river were filled with the Water Willow (Dianthera 



Americana), a slender erect plant with long narrow leaves 

 and purple and white spotted flowers. Some very fine 

 specimens of the Ash-leaved Maple, then in fruit, grew along 

 the water's edge, and in the open fields, struggling through 

 the short grass, we found the small Galium Anglicum, an 

 introduced and very diminutive species, scarcely more than 

 two inches high. 



North of Saltville, in the Holston valley, the two nearest and 

 highest elevations are White Rock and Red Rock, presumably 

 named from the color of the perpendicular cliffs that crown 

 their summits. The excessive heat rendered the ascent of 

 White Top, the loftier of the two peaks, a somewhat formi- 

 dable undertaking. The road followed a narrow rocky 

 water-course for a mile or two through woods and 

 along open clearings, where thousands of Chinquapin (Cas- 

 tanea pumila) made the atmosphere almost stifling with the 

 far from pleasant odor of their flowers. On some of the ledges 

 we found the graceful, drooping flowers of Dicentra eximia 

 and very large spreading plants of Arabis lyrata. 



Most interesting at that altitude and so far inland was 

 a small grove of Holly (Ilex opaca). The shrubs were quite 

 high and very handsome. The American Mistletoe (Phora- 

 dendron flavescens) was noticed on some very tall trees, but 

 was totally inaccessible. When the road grew too narrow for 

 travel we left our wagon and climbed the long steep ascent 

 which wound through ravines and woods till it reached a clear- 

 ing hidden in a shallow hollow of the great mountain. Two 

 small cabins, surrounded by poorly cultivated Rye and Corn 

 fields and savoring strongly of the moonshiner's retreat, stood 

 under the shadow of a few giant TulipandChestnuttrees. Other 

 trees still larger lying on the ground told a tale of the grandeur 

 of the past forest, the prostrate trunks surpassing in size any that 

 we had previously seen. From that point our path was a hardly 

 visible trail through underbrush and young woods with interest- 

 ing and often familiar plants all around us. On damp ground 

 we found the blue-flowered Phacelia (P. bipinnatifida), a plant 

 having less beauty, however, than the other two species, P. 

 Purshii and P. fimbriata. One of the commonest of the smaller 

 flowers through the county was Houstonia purpurea. Every- 

 where it bloomed, a delicate pinkish purple, but in the White 

 Rock Woods we found it pure white. Hydrophyllum macro- 

 phyllum and H. Canadense were growing together, and open 

 fields below the cliffs were purple with a Pentstemon that we 

 were not able to name with the literature at hand. Our liter- 

 ature failed us, too, with a large, very showy Rudbeckia that 

 was beginning to fill the woods with yellow. A few early 

 specimens of the red Lilium Grayi were collected, and innu- 

 merable buds just ready to open promised a gorgeous 

 sight a few days later. Clematis Viorna grew up there 

 taller and with larger flowers than any before seen, its 

 pink-purple bells being much more than an inch long and 

 broad in proportion. The large blue Spiderwort (Tradescantia 

 Virginica) was scattered everywhere, and Vicia Cracca, a 

 pretty little Leguminous vine, climbed over the taller herbs. 



The last part of the climb was up the precipitous cliffs that 

 formed a sheer barrier along the summit of the mountain. 

 The rocks were covered with a white Lichen, the color of 

 which could be seen miles off from the valleys, giving its 

 name to the mountain. From the top the view in all direc- 

 tions was magnificent. Southward we counted eight ranges 

 of tree-covered mountains. White Top and Mount Roger 

 towering above all, while a dim vision of the great masses of 

 Grandfather and the Roan faded into the distant horizon. 



The mountain sloped gradually into the valley beyond, and 

 the whole summit was a flower-show of the most brilliant de- 

 scription. Without leaving the highest point of the rock we 

 could see many acres of Flame-colored Azaleas (Rhododen- 

 dron calendulaceum) in full bloom. They were not more than 

 three to five feet in height, but were unsurpassed in color. 

 Every shade and gradation of yellow, orange, scarlet and crim- 

 son were represented in all their infinite variety. Amianthium 

 muscastoxicum, a tall, slender liliaceous plant, with spikes 

 of white flowers, grew among the Azaleas. It was interesting 

 to find many of the earlier-blossoming plants still flowering at 

 that altitude. A few Kalmias were still seen ; Pyrus nigra was 

 abundant, and so was the tiny flowered Ilex monticola, as well 

 as a low form of Andromeda ligustrina, that was covered with 

 small white bells. 



The long valleys around Saltville were more remarkable for 

 their large stock-farms and cultivated fields than for botanical 

 purposes, so on our return from White Rock we did not lin- 

 ger, but retraced our steps across the Walker Mountain to the 

 Marion valley. Our time there was limited, and we were 

 obliged to return east without seeing the wealth of summer 

 and autumn vegetation, the coming glory of which was 



