INTKODUOTIOX. 
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velopment render it practicable to infer the latter from the former, at 
least as to general outlines. 
But it happens that the botany of North Carolina has received much 
earlier attention and a far greater amount of study, and has been much 
more fully worked out than its climatology, so that the inferential pro- 
cess has needed to be reversed, and the range and character of the cli- 
mate to be deduced from botanical data. This is due in large part to the 
attractive nature of the field to the botanical explorer, which has engaged 
the interest and study of some of the most famous botanists of both 
Europe and America, from the time of Bartram’s tour, in 1776, and of the 
elder Michaux, 1787, and of the younger, an equally distinguished bota- 
nist, in 1S02, to the later explorations of Nuttall, and of Dr. Gray and 
Mr. Carey, who traversed the higher ranges of our mountains in 1841, 
and especially of the Rev. Dr. Curtis, to whom the State owes a debt, in 
this regard, which she does not yet fully appreciate. It is due to him more 
than to any one else, — to his skill and zeal in his favorite science, that North 
Carolina stands among the foremost of the states in respect to the com- 
pleteness as well as the scientific accuracy of the knowledge which the 
world possesses of her singular botanical wealth. 
In witness of the remarkably wide range of vegetable forms, corres- 
ponding to the variety of climatic conditions, may be cited the fact of the 
occurrence within the limits of the State on the one hand, of the white 
pine, (pinus strobus), and the black spruce, (abies nigra), which are found 
along the Appalachians from North Carolina to the White Mountains and 
Canada, and of the hemlock spruce, (abies canadensis), whose range 
reaches from our mountains to Hudson’s Bay ; and on the other, of several 
species of magnolia and the palmetto, which have their northern limit in 
the southeast part of the State and spread thence to the Gulf. And the 
same point might be illustrated even more strongly to the botanist, by 
the mention of other but inconspicuous species, among the lower orders 
of plants, as the mosses, lichens, &c. 
And as concerns the variety of plants which characterizes the flora of 
the State, it is sufficient to mention the fact that Dr. Curtis’ Catalogue 
contains nearly 2,500 species, leaving out the mushrooms (fungi), of which 
there is about an equal number, or almost 5,000 in all. 
Dr. Cooper in his general description of the “Forests and Trees of 
North America” in the Smithsonian Report for 1858, says : “Coming 
next,” (from the Canadian), “to the Appalachian province, we find a va6t 
increase in the variety of our forest trees. In fact, looking at its natural 
products collectively, one of the most striking, as compared to the rest of 
the world between the 30th and 45th degrees o north latitude, is its rich- 
