AT NATURAL BRIDGE 229 



to my surprise, directly in the rear of the 

 hotel, I came upon a dense patch of a small- 

 ish, very narrow, dark-stemmed fern, new to 

 my eyes, the hairy lip-fern, so called 

 (Cheilanthes vestita). These fronds, too, 

 like those of the cliff-brake and the wall-rue 

 spleenwort, were of last year's growth, 

 thickly covered on the back with brown 

 " fruit-dots," and altogether having much 

 the appearance of dry herbarium specimens ; 

 but they were good to look at, nevertheless. 

 Here, as in the case of Pellcea atropurpurea, 

 it was a question not only of a new species, 

 but of a new genus. 



From my account of the scarcity of birds 

 in Cedar Creek ravine the reader will have 

 already inferred, perhaps, that I did not 

 spend my days there, great as were its 

 botanical attractions. My last morning's 

 experience at Pulaski, the evidence there 

 seen that the vernal migration was at full 

 tide, or near it, had brought on a pretty 

 acute attack of ornithological fever, a 

 spring disease which I am happy to believe 

 has become almost an epidemic in some 

 parts of the United States within recent 

 years, and not even the sight of new ferns 



