10 THE AMERICAN' HOTAXIST. 



A little brook, starting deep and calm among the hem- 

 locks, flows out across the open over a bed of solid gray 

 rock, gradually increasing in force as it flows, until it sud- 

 denh' precipitates itself over a steep cliff forming a beauti- 

 ful waterfall some twenty-five feet in height. Here, reach- 

 ing its curious fronds out into the dancing spray, grows 

 the walking fern. Carcfull}' hugging the sheer wall of 

 rock, minutely scanning ever}" inch of the glen, we at 

 length discovered eight small colonies of the fern. 



In close proximity were found the graceful rosettes of 

 the maidenhair spleenwort, while sheltered beneath a huge 

 overhanging ledge of rock, so beautifully covered with 

 mosses and lichens as to seem a part of the very wall it- 

 self, v^^as a phoebe's nest. 



Early this season, while hunting for hepaticas, my 

 heart was rejoiced by finding a goodh' sized new group of 

 the queer, spidery little plants. And while the plants I 

 have found near my own home are neither so numerous 

 nor so beautiful as those of the far famed Berkshires, 3'et 

 somehow my heart warms toward them with something 

 of the pride of a Columbus approaching the shores of a 

 newly discovered continent, for, are they not my own, did 

 I not discover them ? 



Nyack, New York. 



THE PASSING OF PORT MORRIS. 



BY PAULINE KAUFMAN. 



THIS, one of our Ballast grounds, situated at the foot 

 of East One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street, New 

 York City, takes toll Irom everj'- passing vessel and train, 

 so that for j^ears, the number of foreign plants which have 

 here become naturalized citizens, has made it a Mecca for 

 the botanist. Particularly^ was this so for several mem- 

 bers of the Graj^ Botanical Association, who passed its 

 merits on to interested acquaintances. Mr. Buchheister 

 was the discoverer oi Zygophyllum fahago, a caper from 

 the Cape of Good Hope; and also of a rare thistle bearing 

 yellow^flowers. 



