106 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Dec. 



discovering five or six fine clumps (in full bloom) of the Macrae's 

 or Striped Coral Root orchid. 



Just before the month ended I paid a flying visit to my old 

 home, 30 miles south of Peterborough. In the few days avail- 

 able I had to choose which of my ancient cronies to gladden my 

 eyes with, and after a tramp north to the ridges, known locally 

 as the "Rocky Mountains," I determined on one long day near 

 Newtonville, in the tamarack swamp with its surrounding fringe 

 of cedars, where ten years ago I made my first rare find among 

 ferns. In order to give some spice of variety to the coming 

 banquet, I chose the nsw C.P.R. route, which landed me further 

 west by two miles than I had ever been before. Tramping 

 steadily north for a mile, I found myself in full view of the village, 

 and with a very inviting swamp to the east. Shaking the dust 

 of the road from my feet, I swung myself over to the happier 

 side of the fence, and crossing a couple of pastures soon gained 

 the edge of the swamp; distance often lends enchantment, no 

 doubt, but, fortunately, nearness by no means always brings 

 disillusionment; the stretch of swamp had looked promising 

 even from the road, and when I got a nearer view of it, I felt sure 

 the promise spelled fulfilment. Do you know the delightful 

 sense on a field day of being on the verge of mystery, the edge 

 of some discovery, a sense of expectancy like a hush, that some- 

 times in the shadow of the woods deepens into awe? That feel- 

 ing came over me now, and I paused a few moments for it to 

 thrill me through, before advancing into the unknown. 



All the details of a long eventful morning are fresh in my 

 memory as I write, but space and time forbid more than a sum- 

 mary. I found, in my very incomplete survey of the swamp, 

 hundreds of plants of the Adder's Tongue, and besides the Vir- 

 ginia and Ternate Grape-ferns, I discovered some six stations for 

 the Little Grape-fern and the Matricary; and also (to my huge 

 delight) two colonies of the Narrow-leaved Beech Fern. In the 

 autumn I found another station for this last, north of Colborne, 

 but except for these two finds, I have never seen the plant so near 

 Lake Ontario. In the afternoon I hurried on to the tamarack 

 swamp, intending to make a round of calls and hob-nob an hour 

 or so, but while in the heart of a huckleberry marsh, gathering 

 a posy of Arefkusa and Poconi\ I was overtaken by drenching 

 rain, which threw a wet blanket on all my plans. To get out 

 of the swamp I had to wade over 100 yards through shrubbery 

 almost waist high, and by the time I gained a corduroy road, 

 flanked with Royal Osmunda, and serving (among other things) 

 to cleave in two a most wonderful colony of Boirychium simplex 

 — thousands of plants — I was like a drowned rat. Had it been 

 fine, my plan was to go north to the C.N.R. station of Starkville, 



