490  The  Names  of  Medicinal  Plants,  etc.    { Jour- Pharm- 
October,  1894. 
Should  one  not  be  satisfied  with  the  conditions  of  temperature 
mentioned,  and  wish  to  avoid  frost,  there  is  within  the  mountains  of 
North  Carolina  a  thermal  belt  in  which  frost  is  unknown. 
This  frostless  area  is  found  on  both  sides  of  the  mountains.  The 
most  noted  of  such  regions  is  on  Tryon  Mountain  in  Polk  County, 
and  so  sharply  defined  are  the  lines  of  exemption  that  it  stands  out 
a  horizontal  belt  of  verdure  between  areas  above  and  below  of  blasted 
flower  and  foliage.  Within  this  exempted  area  fruits  never  fail,  and 
though  at  the  height  of  1,500  to  2,000  feet  above  sea  level,  frost 
never  appears. 
I  am  indebted  for  many  of  the  foregoing  statements  to  the  Hand 
Book  of  North  Carolina,  published  by  our  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station,  also  to  the  State  Board  of  Agriculture  for  its  courtesy  in 
permitting  me  to  exhibit  to  the  Association  a  collection  of  native 
drugs  comprising  four  hundred  and  twenty-five  varieties,  which 
formed  the  exhibit  of  Messrs.  Wallace  Brothers,  of  Statesville,  N.  C, 
at  the  Columbian  Exposition  at  Chicago,  and  which  was  afterwards 
donated  by  them  to  the  State. 
My  acknowledgments  are  also  due  to  Prof.  Gerald  McCarthy,  of 
the  Botanical  Division  of  the  North  Carolina  Agricultural  Experi- 
ment Station,  for  a  copy  of  Dr.  M.  A.  Curtis'  catalogue  of  the  in- 
digenous and  naturalized  plants  of  the  State — a  very  rare  book, 
comprising  nearly  five  thousand  species;  also  for  a  copy  of  Wood  & 
McCarthy's  "  Wilmington  Flora,"  consisting  of  more  than  twelve 
hundred  varieties. 
1  take  the  liberty  of  adding  the  following  extract  from  a  letter  of 
Prof.  McCarthy's,  which  may  possibly  interest  some  member  of  the 
Association,  viz. :  "  If  any  of  your  confreres  should  read  a  practical 
paper  on  drug  farming,  as  distinguished  from  mere  gathering  of 
wild  spontaneous  growth,  I  believe  Director  Battle  would  agree  to 
try  the  most  promising  plants  as  experimental  crops  and  publish 
the  results." 
My  thanks  are  also  due  to  Messrs.  Wallace  Brothers,  of  States- 
ville, N.  C,  and  to  the  National  Sumac  and  Herb  Co.,  of  Henderson, 
N.  C,  for  assistance,  by  which  I  am  enabled  to  present  a  partial  list 
of  native  drugs  handled  by  them. 
The  author  here  concludes  his  paper  with  a  list  of  over  six  hun- 
dred plants  offered  by  the  above  firms. 
