32 



the facts of its discovery in 1879. Mrs. L. L. Goodrich, of Syra- 

 cuse, a relative of the Geddes family, and a member of the discov- 

 ering party, has stated positively to me that the fern was upon that 

 occasion found in considerable abundance well within the limits of 

 the original "Geddes plantations." 



Pursh further says of this station : * " Mr Geddes brought me 

 to a deep valley about i. m. from his house, where we ascended 

 a steep very rocky hill ; here large masses of rock seem to be piled 

 up or turned over one & another in such a confused manner, that 

 it has left large chasms between them, which sometimes appear 

 like caves : as it has a north aspect & overshadet with trees, all the 

 rocks are covered with moss and vegetables : * * * & what I 

 thought most of Asplenium Scolopendriuni this fern which I dont 

 find mentioned by any one to grow in America I allways had a 

 notion to be here ; & indeed I was quit enjoyed to find my preju- 

 dice so well founded in truth. It appears Jo be the same as the 

 european only smaler ; query ? is the european auriculated at the 

 base like this species?" 



Split Rock is a limestone formation, consisting mostly of the 

 Lower Helderberg, which extends to a depth of approximately 125 

 feet, with the so-called Oriskany sandstone interposing in a very 

 thin sheet, from one to five inches thick, between it and the Cor- 

 niferous of the Upper Helderberg (12 to 14 feet thick) which caps 

 the plateau. Dr. Underwood has several times t called attention to 

 the fact that in central New York at least, this fern is found only at 

 the outcrop of the Corniferous. It was, before the inroad of the 

 quarryman, a steep ledge about, 150 feet high and half a mile long, 

 somewhat semicircular in general outline. At the base of the cliff 

 was a brook, with a sulphur spring upon its bank. It was at some 

 little distance from this spring, I am told, that the plants grew, 

 somewhat sheltered by rocks and trees, but to a large degree ex- 

 posed to the sweep of the cold northwest winds. 



b. The Chittenango Falls Station. The second place in Amer- 

 ica at which this fern is known positively to have been found, is 

 Chittenango Falls, in -Madison county, where Mr. William Cooper 

 found it about 1830. From 1830 to 1857 it was the only American 



* Frederick Pursh : A Journal of a Botanical Excursion in the Northern 

 Parts of the States of Pennsylvania and New York during the year 1807. 63-64. 

 Edited by T. P. James, aud issued 1869. pp. 87. 



t Underwood : Our Native Ferns, Ed 5, p. 6. 1896. Also in Britton & Brown, 

 Illus. Flora North. U. S. and Can. \: 21. 1896. 



