“The Old North State” poem is the official North Carolina State Toast. North Carolina is the only one of the fifty states to have an official State Toast. "The Old North State," both the title of the poem, and our traditional nickname was written and first delivered by Mrs. Leonora Monteiro in 1904. It was officially adopted as The State Toast by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1957. The text "Esse Quam Videri" at the bottom of the print is the North Carolina State Motto. It translates roughly as "to [authentically] be not merely to appear," or put more simply, the distinction between essence and appearance. This poem mentions native plants of North Carolina: long leaf pine, cotton bloom, scuppernong, southern moss, jessamine, galax, rhododendron.