Field and Forest 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 



Vol. III.— SEPTEMBER, 1877.— No. 3. 



Roan Mountain and its Flora. 



At the conclusion of the Nashville meeting, a party of fifteen, 

 mainly geologists., at the invitation and under the guidance of General 

 J. T. Wilder, the '•' Iron King" of Chattanooga, started on a tour of 

 exploration among the rich iron mines of Roan Mountain and vicinity. 



The writer had the good fortune to represent the botanical depart- 

 ment in the party, and he gives these few notes, with the hope of 

 turning the attention of travellers toward these southern summits of 

 the Appalachians, and giving some information as to the means of 

 reaching them, and especially with the desire of calling the attention 

 of botanists to the richness of the locality, and the attractions it has 

 for them at every season. 



The E. Tenn. Va. and Ga. R. R. issued orders to pass the party free 

 on all sections of its line, and Johnson City, twenty-five miles from 

 Bristol, the eastern terminus of its road is our point of departure. 



At 7 A. M. September 8th, a lively crowd of scientifics variously 

 bestowed in stage wagons and other vehicles, started for our twenty- 

 five mile ride, over a road which we soon agreed was equalled by 

 by few and surpassed by none for roughness and consequent amount 

 of exercise. Sometimes it lay half for a mile in the bed of a moun- 

 tain stream, then climbed and crossed limestone ledges, then it 

 plunged into a mud hole, and all along was thickly strown with 

 bowlders of all kinds. For five miles we ascended Buffalo Creek, a 

 mountain stream draining and running parallel with Buffalo Ridge, 

 a limestone range reaching perhaps 3000 feet. 



