The Woodsias of Quechee 
CHARLES SMITH LEWIS 
Three years ago, in the Gray Herbarium at Harvard, 
I found specimens of the W. alpina (Bolton) 8. F. Gray 
labelled ‘‘Quechee Gulf, Vermont” and dated many 
years ago. The next year I found the same locality 
given in the Flora of Vermont (Bulletin No. 187 of the 
Vermont Agricultural Experiment Station), prepared by 
the Vermont Botanical Club; and I determined to get 
to Quechee. But it was not until August, 1919, that 
my son and J found ourselves standing on the station 
platform at Dewey’s Mills, ready to hunt for the rarest 
of the Woodsias, the object of our desires for many 
years. 
Quechee Gulf is a very narrow gorge, through which 
the Ottaquechee river reaches the lower levels and emp- 
ties into the Connecticut. It is 160 feet from the top 
of the railroad bridge that spans the Gulf to the bottom. 
The gorge is not over half a mile in length. Its sides 
are very precipitous, the western wall impassable for a 
good deal of the distance; the eastern wall, while very 
steep and often quite perpendicular, does afford a pos- 
sible foothold, and in the lower reaches a path runs 
along its base. 
We entered at this lower end, under the directions 
given us by Mrs. H. E. Heselton of Taftsville, whose 
courtesy in helping us find some of the rarer Vermont 
ferns we shall always remember. Before long a cluster 
of small fronds up on the cliff caught our eyes and we 
clambered up the side of the gorge. It was steep, but 
that made no matter, for we both found plants of the 
W. alpina. Mine was growing in a patch of moss, and 
one plant was larger than any that I recollected in the 
herbariums, gathered from the United States. Full of 
enthusiasm we pushed up the Gulf. Soon we came 
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