SOME HANDSOME CLIFF PLANTS. 185 



many subjects, botanical, zoological and relig- 

 ious. On the crest of one of these cliffs occur 

 great clumps of the interrupted fern, 72 whose 

 fertile pinnae or small spore-bearing divisions 

 of the frond are near its center. According to 

 botanies this fern grows in " swamps and moist 

 soil/' but nevertheless here it was overhanging 

 the brinks of the highest of these sandstone 

 bluffs. Thus doth nature often controvert the 

 surface observations of man, as recorded in his 

 books. 



On the sides and ledges of these cliffs grows 

 also, but sparingly, the handsome shining club- 

 moss, 73 whose lax or spreading stems fork near 

 the top and bear rows of leaves which are alter- 

 nately longer and shorter. Dark green in color, 

 with a spore case in the axil of each upper leaf, 

 it clings to the side of the almost bare sand- 

 stone, a lowly but most attractive member of 

 our local flora. 



On the level ground above the cliffs E. had at 

 one time taken the cream colored avens, 74 a 

 member of the rose family, which has not before 

 been recorded from the State. Thither we went 

 in search of it and were in time successful. It 

 closely resembles the common white avens 75 but 

 the petals are smaller and cream yellow in hue 

 and the stipules of the leaves much larger. 



72 Osmttnda claytoniana L. 73 Lycopodium lucidulum Michx. 

 74 Geum flavum Porter. 7 * Geum canadense Jacq. 



