ne Ohio ^h^aturalist, 



PUBLISHED BY 



The Biological Club of the Ohio State Uni'versity. 



Volume IV. FEBRUARY, 1904. No. 4. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Wells— The Topography and Geology of Clifton Gorge 75 



Kellekman— Index to Uredineous Culture Experiments with Li&t of Siieeies and 



Hosts for North America 78 



SciiAFFNER— Some Morphological Peculiarities of the Xymphaeaceae and Hcliol^ae.. 83 



OSBORX— Note on Alate Form of Phylloscelis ,. 93 



Sanders— Three New Scale Insects from Ohio 94 



CoBERLY— Meeting of the Biological Club 'J8 



THE TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF 

 CLIFTON GORGE. 



W. E. Weli-s. 



This gorge is located in Greene count}^, Ohio, about two miles 

 from the town of Yellow Springs. It is made by the headwaters 

 of the Little Miami river. 



The beaut}' of the gorge is not surpassed b}^ anything of a like 

 nature in the State. It has been visited by thousands of pleasure- 

 seekers from all the surrounding country, especially from the 

 near-by cities of Dayton, Springfield and Xenia. Neither is this 

 remarkable gorge unknown to the scientists of this and other 

 states. In the gorge are found two quite rare plants — Ground 

 Hemlock ( Taxus canadensis), found nowhere else in the county, 

 and Asplenium ruta-muraria, found nowhere else in the State. 



The origin of the gorge seems to be as follows : The head- 

 waters of the Little Miami flow with an apparently gentle slope 

 over the glacial drift, for some distance. At the town of Clifton, 

 however, the dritt thins out and the Niagara limestone comes to 

 the surface. At the same time the slope increases, with the 

 natural result that the river has hewn for itself a deep bed in the 

 solid rock. This deep bed is the gorge. 



At its beginning the gorge is very narrow, having an average 

 width of about 40 feet. The average depth here is 34 feet. 

 But as the stream proceeds the valley gradually widens. This 

 is due to the fact that the Springfield division of the Niagara 

 has been more easily eroded than the Cedarville division just 

 above it ; so that from time to time the latter has broken off. 

 In proof of this we find the valley floor strewn with rock 

 masses, most of them moss- covered, some of the largest with 



