BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



perfected, and il is particularly interesting to one who like me, believes that the be- 

 haviour of flowers in relation to matters connected with fertilization is much more 

 varied than many suppose. — Thomas Meehax. 



Plantations at Wakhioks.viark, Pp:xnsylvania. — It i.s not often, ii: tliis part of 

 Pennsylvania, we can find a piece of land protected for a series of years alike from the 

 inroads of cattle and from the labors of the agriculturalist.. We have such a preserve 

 here, and I wish to tell you how it was planted and what is growing on it. Il is only 

 a story of what the birds, squirrels and winds are doing. Did you ever visit a Penn- 

 sylvania iron-ore bank, where the brown Haematites are raised from theii- licds of clay 

 and sand, by windlass from shafts, or b}' open cut? Such a location is our preserve. 

 Forty years ago, on the summit of a hill, 1,20'» feet above tide, surrounded on all sides 

 by cultivated lands, ore was found. Astrip of land ten rods wide by fifty rods in length, 

 seems to have defined the largest deposit. For many years thousands of tons of ore 

 were mined. The ore was found on the surface and ;it varied depths below tlie surface, 

 reaching to one hundred and ten feet; sometimes interrupted by a clay or sand belt, 

 which, coming to the mouth of the shafts intermingled with ore, made large refuse de- 

 posits. Irishmen with carts, wagons, mules and " ore buggies " held exclusive posses- 

 sion, and all traces of vegetation disappeared. The surface was irregular. Abandoned 

 shafts made crater-like pit holes; ojjcu cuts over heavy ore deposits, left their mark in 

 the shape of drepressions from ten to fifteen feet deep, witli varied exposures. This 

 area, in connection with some land then, and for many years preceeding, under the 

 usual cultivation of a farm, was fenced in, and planted in I80H, with European Larches 

 and Rohinia P><tiulnrwiii. Catlie. have been carefully excluded, and no agricultural 

 implement has been permitted to be used inside its boundary since that-date. For 

 many years under this treatment it did not promise much in the line of beauty. The 

 clay banks around old shafts remained bare and yellow, and to this day defy ail the 

 mellowing influences of our atmosphere, refusing to bring forth flora! life, excepting 

 here and there a straggling specimen of Pilots riyichi and Populus f/rundide/datd. The 

 Larches have made a fine growth, ranging from twenty to forty feet high. An irregular 

 carpet of grasses, chieHyP^o brevi'folid, Dtinthonia sin'cata with Cart-x Pciinxylrmiirti 

 now covers that portion of the inclosure where the ore was mined. The native wild 

 |)lants began to reappear, and every year some old friend in this new location has 

 greeted us. Our census including foreign agricultural waifs enumerates upwards of 

 one hundred and forty species, and still they come year by year, a pleasant surprise. 

 This morning I note the first appearance of Lijc(qwdium dacatum and L. furtdiih/m, 

 close to two other species of that beautiful family, which have long lived in tli.it aiea, 

 viz.: L. roiiiphiiuifiiiii and 7>. deitd roidcum. We have many seedling Larches. One 

 large Red Maple has given an annual colony of young plants from the scattering of 

 seeds by the winds, 'till they may be counletl by the hundred. Ituhiis i-illoaiDi takes 

 possession of all unoccupied openings, and is making such progress that we will soon 

 be constrained to limit its increase. This preserve is now very much admired for its 

 beauty. I add a list of species noted as growing inside its area, which is about three 

 acres in extent : 



Abies'Co/mdensix, \Aisclei)i(ifs (Jormift, iBaptiaid tinctoria, 



Acer ruhr inn, lAisdepuos ohtmifoliii, iBidens frondom, 



Arhillea millefidiiiiii, Avdepiustuberosit, \Bideiin conriata, 



Aiiibrottui (irtmdxid'fidui. Anpidiina HpiiivloHHin, Bidryrliimn. buuirioidis. 



Aiiielnnrhur (Janadcnau, Aster cordifidmn, Botrychiirirt v<ir dtsKectum' 



Agrimoidd piim'flora, Aster ericnideK, \Cahnuiiithn rlitiopodium. 



Anemone uetiioroisii, Aater 7nacrophi/Uus, Corya tomentogfi, 



Antennariu plnrdafjinlfdlia. Aster prenanthoides, Capsella Buraa-pnstoris, 



Aporynum androxmnifolium, Anter punieem, Carex Pennxyham'ea, 



Aralia nudiraulu, Anter mrjittifoliux, Carex Idxiflora, 



ArchangelirAi hirsutd , Azalea nudiflora, Carex triceps. 



