a. The Geddes Station. The Hart's-tongne was first discov- 

 ered in America by Frederick Pursh, on July 20, 1807, near the 

 place now known as Split Rock, a small suburb of Syracuse, about 

 five miles west. Apparently the first mention in literature of this, 

 the earliest American station, is contained in Pursh's Mora,* in 

 which the following statement occurs: "In shady woods, among 

 loose rocks in the western part of New York, near Onondago, on 

 the plantation of J. Geddis, Esq. Perennial. July. v. v. This 

 species I have seen in no other place but that here mentioned, nei- 

 ther have I any information of its having been found in any other 

 part of North America." Subsequent search failed to again dis- 

 cover the fern in this locality, though it was found at Chittenango 

 Falls (about 1830) and in the Jamesville vicinity (1857). The latter 

 discovery doubtless led to the renewed attempts to find the plants 

 at Geddes. 



At the suggestion of Dr. Asa Gray, Mr. J. A. Paine, in June, 

 1866, visited the locality for the purpose of verifying Pursh's origi- 

 nal station. In his account of the trip f he says, after describing a 

 fruitless search : " Hon. George Geddes, son of the J. Geddes, 

 Ksq., referred to by Pursh, was then appealed to for information in 

 general respecting this fern or its earliest station, and he readily 

 cleared up the whole mystery. The place where it was discovered, 

 he said, was nearly five miles west of Syracuse and half a mile 

 south of his father's house ; on the single point of its being on his 

 father's farm Pursh must have erred ; but it was nearby along a 

 high ledge and about a celebrated sulphur spring." Paine did not 

 succeed in rediscovering the fern at Geddes, and it was generally 

 supposed that it no longer persisted there, until in 1879 (September 

 3oth ) it was rediscovered in fair quantity upon the Geddes property 

 by members of the Syracuse Botany Club. ; The ferns continued 

 to grow thriftily until the summer of 1895, when the Solvay Soda 

 Ash concern blasted out the rocks which had so long served as a 

 shelter. It is extremely unlikely that a single plant has survived. 



It seems strange that up to 1879 no one should have rediscov- 

 ered the fern here. It may be of interest to note that the supposi- 

 tion of Mr. George Geddes and Paine that Pursh was in error in 

 his statement of its occurrence upon the farm is not borne out by 



* Pursh, Fl. Am. Sept. 2 : 667. 1814. 



t Am. Journ. Sci. & Arts, II. 42: 282. 1866. 



J Hull. Torr. Bot. Club. Q: 345-7. 1879. 



