THE SAPPHIRE COUNTRY 275 
French botanist Michaux came to these mountains 
to explore the plant world, taking back to France 
many living specimens as well as a large herbarium. 
After him came other botanists, among them our 
own Asa Gray. In fact all botanists of note had first 
or last to come here, but it was a long time before all 
the wild flowers had been captured and named, if 
they are yet. Meantime, Dr. Gray being in Paris 
one day discovered in the collection of Michaux a 
little unnamed plant marked as having come from 
the high mountains of Carolina. The specimen was 
imperfect, consisting of only the leaves and one 
fruit — the leaves but not the fruit of the galax. 
This little nameless plant with its interesting peculi- 
arities became an object of vain search to Dr. Gray, 
but he finally ventured to describe it, and named it 
in honor of Professor Short of Kentucky, whereupon 
Shortia became an object of general quest. Mean- 
time Dr. Gray found a specimen almost identical 
with Shortia in a collection of Japanese plants, which 
of course greatly increased his desire to find it. But 
it was not until nearly a century after the specimen 
of Michaux had been gathered, and nearly half a 
century since the search for it began, that Shortia 
was really captured, not by Dr. Gray, but by Pro- 
fessor Sargent who was exploring the Sapphire 
Country so rich in beautiful growths. 
The strangest part of the story is that having been 
traced to its home at last, Shortia was found, on the 
Horse Pasture River a few miles south of where Lake 
Toxaway now lies, literally coloring acres of the 
