THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB OFFICERS FOR 1909 President HENRY H. RUSBY, M.D. Vice-Presidents EDWARD S. BURGESS, PH.D. JOHN HENDLEY BARNHART, A. M., M.D. TORREYA is furnished to subscribers in the United States and Canada for one dollar per annum; single copies, fifteen cents. Το subscribers elsewhere, five shillings, or the equivalent thereof. Postal or express money orders and drafts or personal checks on New York City banks are accepted in payment, but the rules of the New York Clearing House compel the request that ten cents be added to the amount of any other local checks that may be sent. Subscriptions are received only for full volumes, beginning with the January issue. Reprints will be furnished at cost prices. Subscriptions and remittances should be sent to TREASURER, TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB, 41 North Queen St., Lancaster, Pa., or College of Pharmacy, 115 West 68th St., New York City. Matter for publication should be addressed to JEAN BROADHURST Teachers College, Columbia University Vol. 10 TORREYA March, 1910 No. 3 SUMMER NOTES ON THE MOUNTAIN VEGETATION OF HAYWOOD COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA BY ROLAND M. HARPER In July and August, 1908, it was my privilege to spend a few weeks at the Biltmore Forest School, in the mountains of North Carolina, by invitation of the Director, Dr. C. A. Schenck. This school is located during the summer months in the "Pink Beds", a beautiful valley in the northern corner of Transylvania County, with its floor elevated about 3,200 to 3,300 feet above the sea. The Pisgah Ridge, with its crest varying in altitude from about 4,500 to 6,000 feet, forms the northwestern boundary of this valley and the southeastern boundary of Haywood County. The Pink Beds valley seems to be unique in several respects, and considerably more field work would be necessary before one could do justice to its very interesting vegetation and ecological problems. But the mountains of Haywood County seem to be thoroughly typical of western North Carolina, and much of what follows will doubtless apply almost as well to any other county in the neighborhood. While sojourning with Dr. Schenck I ascended to the crest of the Pisgah Ridge several times, and walked once over to Waynesville (the county-seat of Haywood County, distant 16 miles from the Pink Beds "as the crow flies" and nearly half as far again by the roads) and back. On the way over to Waynesville I followed the East Fork of Pigeon River most of the way, leaving it at its confluence with the West Fork and going thence nearly due west the remaining seven or eight miles. On the way back I went up the West Fork a few miles, then turned eastward and [No. 2, Vol. 10, of TORREYA, comprising pages 29-52, was issued February 28, 1910.] went over the summit of Cold Mountain, a sharp peak between the two forks, whose altitude is given by Buckley * as 6,105 feet, and on the topographic maps of the United States Geological Survey as between 6,000 and 6,100 feet. From Waynesville I also walked the railroad to Balsam, about eight miles southwestward and just over the line in Jackson County. This is about 3,300 feet above sea level, and is said to be the highest railroad station east of the Rocky Mountains. Although a great deal of botanical work has been done in these far-famed North Carolina mountains ever since they were visited by Bartram and Michaux in the latter part of the 18th century, it has been mostly mere collecting, and the publications resulting from it, with very few exceptions, have been either works relating to trees only, notes on selected species, or narratives dealing with the flora or scenery rather than with the vegetation. So perhaps an attempt to classify the habitats of a small but typical portion of the mountain region, and arrange the species in each according to structure, relative abundance, etc., will not involve too much duplication of previous publications. Although the time I spent in Haywood County was very short, and I collected no specimens (so that some of my identifications are incomplete or uncertain), some of the generalizations which follow may be just as true as if they were based on a broader foundation, and some comparisons with other regions may be of interest. etc. As is well known to geographers, the mountains of North Carolina are as near normal as any in North America, having been brought to their present form almost entirely by erosion, with few or no complications due to faulting, unequal hardness of strata, glaciation, solution (e. g., of limestone), volcanic action, The topographic forms are consequently comparatively simple, consisting chiefly of ridges and valleys, most of them sloping equally on both sides and running in every possible direction, the former with sharp crests undulating but scarcely serrate, and the latter steep, rocky, and V-shaped toward their heads and broader, smoother, and more level lower down. There are no caves, sinks, natural lakes, islands, or cut-offs, and * Am. Jour. Sci. II. 27.: 287. 1859. comparatively few precipices and waterfalls. These mountains are much less rocky than the glaciated ones of the North, for in the countless ages that they have been exposed to the weather all but the hardest and steepest rocks have become deeply buried in soil resulting from their own decay. The following descriptions of vegetation are intended to apply only to areas more than 2,700 feet above sea-level. Below this rather arbitrary limit in Haywood County the country is scarcely mountainous, consisting mostly of broad valleys and low hills with fertile red soil, very largely under cultivation, and the vegetation does not differ greatly from that of the Piedmont region of the Carolinas and Georgia. Above the altitude just mentioned the principal habitats in this county seem to be (1) mountain summits above 5,500 feet, (2) slopes and lower summits below 5.500 feet, (3) wet ravines or mountain rivulets, (4) rich ravines or steep coves, (5) river banks and bottoms, (6) gravelly and muddy river beds, (7) wet meadows, and (8) artificial or unnatural habitats. * In the following lists the species are divided into trees, shrubs and herbs, and then arranged as nearly as possible in order of abundance. Evergreens, when known, are indicated by heavy type, and vines by italics. To make the lists more complete and determine the relative abundance of the species more accurately than would have been the case if I had adhered closely to political boundaries, I have included in my calculations notes made about a mile over the Jackson County line near Balsam, and along the crest of the Pisgah Ridge, where I was sometimes a few yards over the Transylvania County line. This will not introduce any perceptible error into the results. The only mountain above 5,500 feet which I set foot on is Cold Mountain, already mentioned. The Balsam Mountains, a few miles farther west, are about 500 feet higher, and more densely wooded, but I did not have a chance to visit them, and little is known about the details of their vegetation. During about an hour spent on and near the sharp summit of Cold * For explanation of a more elaborate method of treating habitat groups see Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 17: 36-41. 1906. Mountain late in the afternoon of August 9 the following native species were noted. (This summit, like many others in the same region, has long been used for pasturage,* and there are of course a good many weeds on it. These will be found in the last list.) It happens that on the same afternoon Dr. H. D. House was on the summit of Mt. Pisgah, on the edge of the same county, about six miles farther east and 300 feet lower, where he found many of the same species, and Paronychia argyrocoma besides. Quite a number of the same have been reported from similar habitats a little farther north by Dr. Harshberger. ‡ *See Gray, Am. Jour. Sci. 42: 41, 47. 1842; Redfield, Bull. Torrey Club 6: 338. 1879; Scribner, Bot. Gaz, 14: 255. 1889. Interesting notes on the species whose names are followed by numbers can be found as follows: (1) Gray, Am. Jour. Sci. 42: 31, 42. 1842; Redfield, Bull. Torrey Club 6: 338. 1879; Sargent, Gard. & For. 2: 472. f. 132. 1889; Pinchot & Ashe, Bull, N. C. Geol. Surv. 6: 136, 223. 1898; (2) Gray, l. c. 28, 42. (3) Redfield & Gray, Bull. Torrey Club 6: 336. 1879; Small & Heller, Mem. Torrey Club 3' 4. 1892; Cannon, Torreya 2: 161-169. 1902; (4) Gray, Am. Jour. Sci. 42: 42. 1842; Small & Heller, l. c. (5) Scribner, Bot. Gaz, 14: 254. 1889. (6) Gray, 1. c. 19, 40; Redfield, l. c. 337; F. E. Boynton, Pop. Sci. Mo. 31: 654. 1887. (7) Gray, 1. c. 27, 41; L. N. Johnson, Bot. Gaz. 13: 270. 1888; Small & Heller, 1. c. 14. (8) Harshberger, Bot. Gaz. 36: 378. 1903. Bot. Gaz. 36: 376-382. 1903. |