214 Rhodora [NOVEMBER 
in ink. Many of these sketches are really beautiful. Even the printed 
pages are employed as a medium for illustration. 
In viewing the * finds" of those long-ago days, one must consider 
the very different topography that then existed; also that our waters 
were formerly quite undefiled. Remember, for instance, that the cove 
was a natural estuary of tolerably pure water, in which one could bathe, 
and around which grew many littoral plants. To the north there were 
sloping banks, leading up to the extensive pine-forest on Smith's Hill. 
Indeed, I myself recall such conditions. Near the Vitriol Works, as 
late as 1868, I gathered such plants as Leucothoe racemosa, Gray, 
Rhododendron viscosum, Torr., and Cephalanthus occidentalis, L. 
Again, even in my day, Long Pond, now filled in, was a charming 
collecting ground, and it was only the other day, as it were, that a 
new causeway throttled Greater Benedict Pond. Many fine things 
used to grow there, among them Plantago Virginica, L. 
When I first knew Leonard's Pond, in the tenth ward, it was not 
even in the city, and only a very few houses were in sight. Nowa 
dense population is gathered near it. Here I used to go for Epigaca 
repens, L., and Cypripedium acaule, Ait. In Bradley's Swamp near- 
by, almost up to the seventies, grew a patch of Rhododendron Rho- 
dora, Don. 
About Wanskuck, now a populous factory-village suburb of the city, 
was a wild wood, and a most delightful and romantic walk extended 
along the west bank of Randall's Pond, the earliest haunt of the May- 
flower. 
Cat Swamp, the Mecca of Botanists, was, even in my day, inviolate. 
Fortunately its flora was collected by many acute observers, and col- 
ored drawings made by a Mr. Peckham. These I learn are still acces- 
sible. É 
Slate Rock, sacred to Roger Williams, was, when I was a boy at 
the University Grammar School, still in part surrounded by water. 
We youths bathed from it where the water would now insure prompt 
asphyxiation. A clear, lively brook babbled through and gave its 
name to Brook Street. I remember it was open between Power and 
Williams St, by the residence of Chief Justice Ames. Charming 
groves extended to the river-side below the Rhode Island Hospital — 
where were the park-like grounds of G. W. Rhodes. Various gas- 
houses and power-works have usurped the place of these rural attrac- 
tions. North of Angell Street, on College Hill, houses were few and 
