PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 73 



coming down into the usually narrow bottom through which the 

 creek flows. The stream itself is full of the most charming curves 

 and the whole region is an ideal park. No one can see it without 

 thinking how admirably it is adapted for a National Park. Such 

 a park might be made to extend from Oak Hill Cemetery to the 

 Military Road opposite Brightwood, having a width of a mile or 

 a mile and a half. Not only every botanist but every lover of Art 

 and Nature must sigh at the prospect, now not far distant, of 

 beholding this region devastated by the ax and the plow. The 

 citizens of Washington should speedily unite and strenuously urge 

 upon Congress the importance of early rescuing this ready-made 

 National Park from such on unfortunate fate.* 



The Bock Creek Region is divided, so far as the designation of 

 localities is concerned, into six sections. The first embracing the 

 series of groves from Georgetown to Woodley Park on the right 

 bank of the creek, is called Woodley. This section embraces sev- 

 eral interesting ravines and in it are found many plants rare else- 

 where, such as Chamce lirium, Oarolinianum, Oypripedium pubescens> 

 Hesperis matronalis and Liparis Lceselii. In it is also a grove of 

 the Hercules club (Aralia spinosa.) On the left bank of the creek 

 lie the Kalorama Heights and some open woodland. 



The Woodley Park section extends to the ravine which comes 

 down opposite the old brick mill-ruin known as the Adams Mill. 

 The timber here has been thinned out recently by the proprietors 

 but not cleared off, and the vegetation has undergone a marked 

 change. Several interesting plants have been found in Woodley 

 Park, including the rare Obolaria Virginica, and the beautiful Spir- 

 aea aruncus. Above this the timber is heaviest on the left bank 

 and some very fine ravines occur, at the head of one of which is a 

 magnolia and sphagnum swamp where Veratrum viride and Sym- 

 plocarpus foetidus keep company with Gonolibus obliquus and Pyrus 



* It is remarkable that when committees of Congress have been appointed, 

 as has several times been done, to consider a site for a National Park, they 

 have usually looked in other directions and have seemed to ignore the ex- 

 istence of this region, which is certainly the only one that possesses any 

 natural claims. A mere carriage ride through such parts as are traversed 

 by roads is wholly insufficient to afford an adequate idea of its merits from 

 this point of view. For the greater part of the distance mentioned above 

 this region is accessible only to footmen. 



