Gregor IVocKs 199 



beautiful colony of the rare Ebony Spleenwort {^Asple- 

 nium platyneurori), not common hereabout. Over the 

 mossy rocks below I again found numerous mats of 

 Walking Fern. In finding these two ferns so closely 

 associated, I searched for the rarer hybrid of these 

 ferns, known as Scott's Spleenwort {Asplenium eben- 

 oides), but did not find it. It has been seen but once 

 or twice in Vermont, to my knowledge, being more fre- 

 quent in southern New England, Alabama, and Vir- 

 ginia, where it ascends fourteen hundred feet above 

 the sea level. 



The rich soil amid the hollows above was covered 

 with the strange Grape-Fern, locally called Umbrella- 

 Fern {Botrychium Virginianum), Maiden-Hair and 

 numerous other common ferns and brakes filled the 

 swamps below. Coming from the woods, I entered a 

 hayfield where the mowers were at work. Beyond 

 this, I entered a cow-pasture skirting the Glebe ridge. 

 Here were deep hollows guttered out, leading north- 

 ward to Pownal Centre. Pennyroyal grew over the 

 parched, dry plains, and in the hot sun shed forth 

 its aromatic perfume. Boulders and natural obelisks 

 were lodged on the hills above. In character the latter 

 are similar to rocking stones, that are so finely poised 

 on the mutton-backed bedrock, that with pressure they 

 sway slightly. The obelisks are either pillar-like 

 boulders moored in the mud and soil, or formed along 

 cliffs by the heat, frost, and wind erosions, causing them 

 to appear like columns or broken monuments, in the 

 distance. 



