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of snipe, ducks and upland geese, all of which are remarkably tame 

 and are very good to eat. The field would yield as good results 

 to the ornithologist as to the botanist. 



Apia, Samoa, May 20, 1888. 



Cheilanthes vestita, Sw., on New York Island. 



The eastern range in the United States of the genus Cheilan- 

 thes, Sw., was extended to the Hudson and beyond by Prof. Eaton 

 from a report of the collection of C. vestita, (Spreng.), Sw., by W. 

 W. Denslow, in " clefts of rocks, island of New York," {vide 

 Gray's Manual, p. 659). This collection was made over twenty 

 years ago, somewhere on "Washington Heights," but the exact 

 station seems to be nowhere recorded. I have seached in vain for 



L 



4 



any mention of a rediscovery of this station, and there has been 

 some fear that this rare fern had become totally extinct on 

 Manhattan Island. It was, therefore, with especial gratification 

 that I found it, on the afternoon of July 15th, upon the summit 

 of the rocky ridge west of the Kingsbridge Road, about on a line, 

 I judge, with the future 195th Street. The bluff at this point 

 IS too steep to be climbed with safety, but may be readily ascended 

 farther north by a path just beyond a little white frame building 

 close to the road, called ''Beck's lawood House." The exact 



w 



station is a number of rods south of the head of this path, near 

 a rounded expanse of naked rock which forms the brow of the 

 bluff at that point.. Eight or ten plants were found within a 

 space of two yards, and a rod or so away there is a scattering 

 cluster of three or four more. They are growing in very thin 

 soil, in shallow hollows (scarcely clefts) of the rock. IMost of the 

 fronds are of quite moderate size, only three or four inches in 

 length, the largest under six, exclusive of the stipe. The agree- 

 ment of the specimens collected (three fronds only !) with the de- 

 scription and figure in Gray's Manual is very close, except that 

 the scattered hairs are whitish in color rather than rusty, and, 

 ough the longer ones are discernibly articulated, they are not 

 ** prominently " so. Increased age, however, will doubtless bring 

 the fern into conformity with Prof. Eaton's description in these 

 respects also. The only other fern noticed in the immediate 

 neighborhood was Aspienium platyneuron, (L.), BSP., (= A. 



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