Field and Forest 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



DEVOTED TO THE NATURAL SCIENCES. 



Vol. III.— JULY, 1877.— No. 1. 



A Botanical Trip in Virginia. 



On the eleventh of May 1877, a party of three, consisting of Mr. 

 L. F. Ward, and Prof. J. W. Chickering, Jr., of Washington, D. C, 

 and Rev. Thos. Morong of Boston, Mass., well provided with port- 

 folios and paper, left Washington for a short botanical exploration of 

 the Dismal Swamp and parts adjacent. This paper will attempt to 

 give some notes of the trip, botanical, topographical and general. 



Five o'clock the next morning found us safely landed at Fortress 

 Monroe, with a southerly wind and a cloudy sky, which though ad- 

 mirable for limiting are not propitious for botanizing. During the 

 forenoon, despite an occasional shower, we extended our researches for 

 a couple of miles along the shore. Within the Fortress, and upon the 

 ramparts, we found besides the noble Live Oaks Quercus virens, (its 

 northern limits) Allium striatum, Me die ago maculata, Senebiera didyma, 

 Gnaplialium purpureum. 



Stretching away to the north is a line of sand dunes, perhaps 

 twenty feet high, and sloping away in the landward side into level 

 sandy barrens, covered with groves of Pinus Taeda. The sand hills 

 are interspersed withe thickets of Quercus virens, and cinerea (dwarf 

 forms,) Myrica cerifera 6° — io°, Zanthoxylum Carolinanum, Smilax 

 tamnoides, Vitis vulpina, a curious shrubby form with hardly any ap- 

 pearance of a vine, and Lonicera sempervirens. 



Scattered through the woods were seen Cypripedium acaule, Pyrus 

 angustifolia, Vinca major, Yucca filamentosa, Oputttia vulgaris, 

 Helianthemum Canadense, Carex pedimculata, arua, praecax, while 



