340 THE CAROLINA MOUNTAINS 
freely, if possible, there than in the wilderness. Al- 
though no longer alone in its work, the Highland 
Nursery was the first native enterprise to distribute 
the decorative plants of this region from the North 
Carolina mountains, and from it the estate of Bilt- 
more supplied its first needs. 
It is an interesting fact that, long before the 
people of America had learned to appreciate the 
beautiful plants with which their country is so 
richly endowed, these were used and highly valued 
in European gardens, and English estates were beau- 
tified with our rhododendrons, laurels, and azaleas 
long before we had learned to value them as orna- 
mental growths for cultivated grounds. It was 
Michaux, who, transported by the beauty of the wild 
flowers of the New World, took many of them home 
and introduced them to the people of Europe. It 
was he also who taught the mountain people the 
value of ginseng and how to prepare it for the 
Chinese market. 
It is but a few pleasant miles from Kawana to 
Linville, along a road very much interfered with by 
little tributaries of the Linville River, among them 
the pretty Grandmother Creek. But if you want to 
go directly to the falls from Kawana, you turn 
towards the south instead of the north, and follow 
the road a few miles down the river to the Linville 
Falls settlement: this is about a mile from the falls 
to which a rough road leads, for the country about 
here is extremely wild: the woods are choked with 
dense growths of laurel and rhododendron, and the 
