CHAPTER III 
THROUGH THE RIVER COUNTRY OF GEORGIA 
S EPTEMBER 23 . Am now fairly out of 
the mountains. Thus far the climate has 
not changed in any marked degree, the 
decrease in latitude being balanced by the in- 
crease in altitude. These mountains are high- 
ways on which northern plants may extend 
their colonies southward. The plants of the 
North and of the South have many minor 
places of meeting along the way I have trav- 
eled; but it is here on the southern slope of 
the Alleghanies that the greatest number of 
hardy, enterprising representatives of the two 
climates are assembled. 
• Passed the comfortable, finely shaded little 
town of Gainesville. The Chattahoochee River 
is richly embanked with massive, bossy, dark 
green water oaks, and wreathed with a dense 
growth of muscadine grapevines, whose ornate 
foliage, so well adapted to bank embroidery, 
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