44 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



Natures Studies in and Around Washington, D. C. 



BY R. W. SIIUFELDT, M. D. 



OF ALL THE CITIES in this 

 country few there are that can of- 

 fer the amateurs and profession- 

 als in any of the departments of natural 

 science, botany, agriculture, and their 

 allied callings, more advantages in the 

 way of libraries, museums, and delight- 

 ful variety in the surrounding country 

 than can the city of Washington — our 

 Capital. Moreover, Washington holds 

 in its society an unusually large number 

 of people who are more than interested 

 in such pursuits, for the city is the home 

 of a great many distinguished men and 



venient to consult everything that has 

 been published along the lines of biology 

 in its broadest sense. The many mu- 

 seums have superb public exhibits of 

 natural history material of every descrip- 

 tion, and collections for the use of stu- 

 dents, containing thousands upon thous- 

 ands of specimens from every division 

 and kingdom in nature. 



Situated as the city is upon the Po- 

 tomac river, one naturally finds present 

 the usual river faunse as they occur in 

 this part of the world : a few interesting 

 mammals for study ; a long list of water 



FIG. 1. A GROUP OF WASHINGTON FOLK WHO BELIEVE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE LIFE. 



women of science, and of a considerable 

 body of those that take up such studies 

 in a non-professional way. To these 

 and others we may add a very large as- 

 semblage of those devoted to amateur 

 pursuits along similar lines, and they, in 

 turn, have their host of friends in that 

 charming class now usually designated 

 as the nature lovers. In short, we have 

 an army of such people, ranging all the 

 way from a strict closet naturalist to the 

 jolly soul who takes to the timber just 

 for the love of it, in that he or she may 

 be as close to nature as possille all the 

 time. 



We have several large libraries in 

 Washington, rendering it easy and con- 



and land birds ; a fair representation of 

 fresh-water fishes, and finally, quite a 

 number of batrachians and reptiles, as 

 well as insects, mollusks, and other in- 

 vertebrata. As for the flora, it is most 

 varied and beautiful, flowering species 

 lasting from the earliest days of spring, 

 until entirely checked by the hand of 

 winter, which is not always cold enough, 

 however, to kill it all, as one may see 

 dandelions here even in January. 



The summer of 19x4 was a particular- 

 ly lovely one — all the way from the mid- 

 dle of April to the last -lays of October, 

 and even a good ^'-pvs into November. 

 My wife and I enioved a score or more 

 of fine tramps in various directions ; and 



