AT NATURAL BRIDGE 227 



New Orleans while leaning against the cliff 

 to peer into a crevice in search of a diminu- 

 tive fern. This fern was of much interest 

 to me, being nothing less than the wall-rue 

 spleenwort {As2)lenium Riita-muraria)^ for 

 which I had looked without success in years 

 past on the limestone cliffs of northern Ver- 

 mont, at Willoughby and elsewhere. The 

 fronds, stipe and all, last-year plants in full 

 fruit, were less than three inches in length. 

 Another fern, one size larger, but equally 

 new and interesting, was the purple-stemmed 

 cliff-brake (^Pellcea atropurpurea)^ which 

 also had eluded my search in its New Eng- 

 land habitat. Both these rarities (plants 

 which will grow only on limestone cannot 

 easily be degraded into commonness) I could 

 have gathered here in moderate numbers, 

 but of course collecting is not permitted ; in 

 the nature of the case it cannot be, in a spot 

 so frequented by curiosity-seekers. It was 

 pleasure enough for me, at any rate, to see 

 them. 



Along: the bottom of the ravine I had re- 

 marked a profusion of a strikingly beautiful 

 larger fern (but still " smallish," as my 

 pencil says), with showy red stems and a 



