88 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
ing with many secondary lateral ravines, accommodat- 
ing streams, and for 6 miles, as part of Fairmount Park, 
it struggles onward over dams, between precipitous, 
rocky hills clothed by sweet-fern, wild honeysuckle, and 
laurel—by juniper, pine, and hemlock—by oak, chest- 
nut, and tulip-poplar—shrubs and trees of unusual size 
and vigor—with an exceedingly rich floral undergrowth 
—until it finds its release at “Riverside.” 
From colonial days “the Wissahickon” has been a 
resort for nature-lovers, and upon its northern bank 
near Ridge Road John Kelpius in 1695 founded and 
conducted what is believed to have been the first Botanic 
Garden of America. Here plants were grown and their 
uses taught, and from it Dr. Christopher Witt proceeded 
to Germantown, where, in 1705, the second garden for 
the study of plants was established. 
Philadelphia being the important city of America 
until after the Revolutionary War, in it, first in the 
United States, the study of the natural sciences became 
popular, and, in connection with the Philadelphia Col- 
lege, the Academy of Natural Sciences, and other insti- 
tutions of learning, teachers and their classes made 
frequent excursions and became familiar with the Wissa- 
hickon territory. From records existing it is of interest 
to note changes. Dr. W. P. C. Barton, in his Com- 
pendium Florae Philadelphicae, published in 1818, 
noted that Viola rotundifolia “is rare and grows only 
upon Wissahickon-hills near Ridge Road,’’ while now 
it appears two miles northwest upon the stream. Here 
C. 8. Rafinesque was a frequent visitor, and from here, 
near Schuylkill Falls, Thomas Nuttall, in 1818, described 
Asplenium pinnatifidum. It would be difficult to name 
a Philadelphia botanist not connected with “the Wissa- 
hickon,” for, from the days of Kelpius to those of Stone 
and Brown, all known to us were familiar with it. Upon 
its banks flourished the nurseries of Maupay, Meehan, - 
