AMERICAN FERN SOCIETY 123 
was thinking of a trip to the U. 8., there came a call 
from the Red Cross in Siberia for help, and so I volun- 
teered and spent about eight months there, being 
stationed in Vladivostok all the time. It was not all 
“battle, murder and sudden death” with us in Vladi- 
vostok, so what little spare time I could get I devoted 
to collecting. I must say it is not a fern lover’s paradise; 
in fact the only fern I found in any abundance was an 
old time friend, Osmunda cinnamomea. I did occasion-. 
ally run across a few plants of Adiantum pedatum, 
Polypodium vulgare, Pteris aquilina, Camptosorus rhi- 
zophyllus, ete., and I have about 30 specimens to add 
to the herbarium which I am leaving you to name up. 
What the country about Vladivostok lacked in ferns 
it made up in flowering plants; in all my wanderings, 
excepting on some of the mountain meadows of Switzer- 
land, I have never seen such a profusion of bloom: 
azaleas, buttercups, marsh marigolds, violets, iris, lilies, 
primroses, peonies, forget-me-nots, columbine, poppies, 
gentians, roses, orchids, syringas, spiraea, blue bells, 
clematis, fire weed and so on through the whole list, 
together with many things which were strange to me. 
On Russian Island, lying off in front of the harbor, there 
were lilies of the valley by the acre as fine and as frag- 
rant as our garden variety; and one day at F ortress 
No. 6 I gathered an armful of cypripediums, one brilliant 
pink and the other a maroon and yellow. Late in the 
season the asters along the sea shore made a wonderful 
display with the very large flowers in all the shades of 
blue and pink. gee 
Vladivostok has one of the most magnificent situations 
for a city that I have ever seen and if man would only 
“cease from troubling” I know of no place where & 
more delightful summer could be spent 
Last month I finished my 19 years In 
am planning to return to the U. S. this fall: J 
I shall next dabble in fern collecting I cannot say. 
the tropics and 
