112 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
is an airiness, a gracefulness about the the pose of these 
ferns, and their color is such a delicate fresh green that 
it has few rivals among our ferns. It is a worthy mem- 
ber of that chosen company dwelling in moist limestone 
ravines. We may expect rare ferns even on an exposed 
limestone cliff, but where the rock is shaded and drip- 
ping with moisture it seems as if nature were trying to 
outdo herself. The rocks seem to retain some of the 
life of past ages, and the shells slowly formed in the 
depths of the sea, are now wasted away in supporting 
a luxuriant vegetation.” 
“What red-letter days we fern-hunters have,” wrote 
James A. Bates in the Fern Bulletin in 1894. 
“I don’t think we are naturally any more enthusi- 
astic than other people, but we can tell just when and 
where we found such and such little rock ferns years ago, 
and now and then the finding of a rare one in an unex- 
pected place does us more good than it would to find a 
purse of money (the owner would be sure to come for 
that!). 
“My friends will probably testify that I am a quiet 
sober, matter-of-fact sort of character, but I am afraid 
I just stood still and shouted hurrah! when I first sa 
the Woodwardia Virginica.” 3 
Willard N. Clute wrote most charmingly regarding 
the Chittenango Falls locality for the Harts Tongue 
in the Fern Bulletin of October, 1897. “It is a wild 
and beautiful locality, just the spot to serve as & 
hiding place for botanical rarities. A large stream, 
the Chittenango, hurrying northward to Oneida Lake, 
here makes a plunge of many feet over a double series 
of falls, and winds away through a narrow wooded 
glen, hemmed in by great precipices of corniferous 
limestone, which echo the roar of the waters and are 
always damp with their spray. The shadier parts 
of these cliffs shelter the Walking Fern and Slender 
