122 AMERICAN FERN JOURNAL 
One of the local newspapers, the Syracuse Post- 
Standard, suggested that the Fern Society in its field 
meetings might well determine from the botanical 
standpoint what the area of the proposed new park 
should be. As it happens the area the botanist would 
preserve is practically co-extensive with that which 
would be desirable from the geological and scenic view- 
points and includes East Green, White, and Evergreen 
Lakes, the swamps surrounding them, with the cliffs 
and woodlands which lie to the west and south. 
R. C. BENEDICT. 
While visiting the Green Lake region of New York 
State last July I was interested in noting the apparent 
effect of the extraordinary ecological conditions upon 
the relative abundance of the common pteridophytes. 
To one accustomed to the fields and woods of the aver- 
age locality in northeastern North America, where the 
various soil elements have been pretty well mixed 
together by glacial activity, this region of rock almost 
exclusively calcitic seems to exhibit a fern distribution 
somewhat strange and unbalanced. 
The almost total absence of Equisetums is not sur- 
prising when we consider the prominence of silex in 
the Equisetum anatomy, but the similar absence of 
Lycopodiums is not so easily explained. In several 
places the steep talus slopes drop down into sink holes 
where the air feels distinctly chilly, an indication, 
possibly, of ice deposits in adjacent caverns, or roc 
crevices. In one of these “refrigerators,” as they were 
dubbed by some of our party, I found a thick growth 
of Lycopodium annotinum ‘covering an area of several 
Square rods—the only occurrence of this plant that came 
to my notice during the trip. Perhaps the continuous 
low temperature served to retard the growth of lime 
