In an excursion on shore, near the little village of Charleston, [016] in Virginia, we met with many plants common to the eastern side of the Alleghanies; beside the delicate sison bulbosum, whose fruit was now nearly ripened. In shady situations we found the rocks, and even the trunks of trees to some little distance from the ground, closely covered with the sedum ternatum, with white flowers fully unfolded. The cercis canadensis, and the cornus florida, were now expanding their flowers, and in some places occurred so frequently, as to impart their lively colouring to the landscape. In their walks on shore, the gentlemen of the party collected great numbers of the early-flowering herbaceous plants, common to various parts of the United States.[017] An enumeration of a few of the species most commonly known, with the dates of their flowering, is given in the note.
The scenery of the banks of the Ohio, for two or three hundred miles below Pittsburgh, is eminently beautiful, but is deficient in grandeur and variety. The hills usually approach on both sides nearly to the brink of the river; they have a rounded and graceful form, and are so grouped as to produce a pleasing effect. Broad and gentle swells of two or three hundred feet, covered with the verdure of the almost unbroken { 17} forest, embosom a calm and majestic river; from whose unruffled surface, the broad outline of the hills is reflected with a distinctness equal to that with which it is imprinted upon the azure vault of the sky. In a few instances near the summits of the hills, the forest trees become so scattered, as to disclose here and there a rude mass, or a perpendicular precipice of gray sandstone, or compact limestone, the prevailing rocks in all this region. The hills are, however, usually covered with soil on all sides, except that looking towards the river, and in most instances are susceptible of cultivation to their summits. These hilly lands are found capable of yielding, by ordinary methods of culture, about fifty bushels of maize per acre. They were originally covered with dense and uninterrupted forests, in which the beech trees were those of most frequent occurrence. These forests are now disappearing before the industry of man; and the rapid increase of population and wealth, which a few years have produced, speaks loudly in favour of the healthfulness of the climate, and of the internal resources of the country. The difficulty of establishing an indisputable title to lands, has been a cause operating hitherto to retard the progress of settlement, in some of the most fertile parts of the country of the Ohio; and the inconveniences resulting from this source still continue to be felt.