III *ER TILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 

 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FRONDS 



within fifteen miles of my home in Albany, I never 

 saw the plant until this summer some hundred miles 

 nearer the centre of the State. During a morning 

 call I chanced to mention that I was anxious to find 

 two or three ferns which were said to grow in the 

 neighborhood. My hostess told me that twenty-five 

 years before, on some limestone cliffs about eight 

 miles away, she had found two unknown ferns which 

 had been classified and labelled by a botanical friend. 

 Excusing herself she left me and soon returned with 

 carefully pressed specimens of the Purple Cliff 

 Brake and the little Rue Spleenwort, the two ferns 

 I was most eager to find. Such moments as I ex- 

 perienced then of long-deferred but peculiar satis- 

 faction go far toward making one an apostle of 

 hobbies. My pleasure was increased by the kind 

 offer to guide me to the spot which had yielded the 

 specimens. > 



One morning soon after we were set down at the 

 little railway station from which we purposed to 

 walk to the already-mentioned cliffs. We were not 

 without misgivings as we followed an indefinite path 

 across some limestone quarries, for a plant may 

 easily disappear from a given station in the course of 

 twenty-five years. In a few moments the so-called 

 path disappeared in a fringe of bushes which evi- 

 dently marked the beginning of a precipitous de- 

 scent. Cautiously clinging to whatever we could 

 lay hold of, bushes, roots of trees or imbedded rocks, 

 we climbed over the cliff's side, still following the 

 semblance of a path. On our left a stream plunged 



9* 



