24 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



those useless murders so remorselessly committed by sports- 

 men, all that timid world is reassured. The trees talk with 

 the wind; the birds, resuming their prattlings, hop through the 

 branches ; the gnats re-commence their waltzes in the luminous 

 streaks of light wherein their balls are given, and Nature at- 

 tends to the little affairs exactly as if you were not there. — 

 American Farmer. 



Rue Splenwort and Cliff-rrake. — Up to the summer 

 of 1907, my personal knowledge of rue spleenwort, {Asple- 

 nium ruta-muraria) and purple cliff-brake {Pellaca atropur- 

 purea) was confined to the lime rocks of Central Valley, 

 Orange County, N. Y. Here the former grew so tightly 

 wedged in the crevices of rocks, that only the point of a hat 

 pin or scissors could dislodge its tiny root. The latter gained 

 the name "neck-break" from the fact that the three or four 

 fronds we saw, grew at the top of very high rocks, straight up 

 in the air, so that it was always dangerous to attempt to get 

 near it. While out with the botanists at Newton, N. J. last 

 July, imagine my bewilderment at meeting many low rocks, 

 not only covered with sturdy specimens of rue spleenwort and 

 purple cliff-brake, but the same ferns almost coming to meet 

 us, on the ground between the rocks and the path. I had heard 

 of other places where this happens, but seeing is convincing. 

 The maiden hair, ebony spleenwort and maidenhair spleenwort 

 were plentiful, as were many other ferns. On one trip three 

 rocks at various points were found to have ten different kinds 

 of fenis on them. Dr. Philip Dowell had the good fortune to 

 find Asplenium ebenoidcs (Scotts spleenwort), in fact 

 many of the best things came his way, so that during the even- 

 ing session, a number of us would await with great interest, 

 the opening of his press, when his turn came to relate what the 

 day had brought forth. — Pauline Kaufman, Nezu York City. 



