1 6 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



Three cuts illustrate the article: a portrait of Dr. Thomson, 

 a general view of lower Manhattan and adjacent Brooklyn shores, 

 and a map showing the suggested changes. 



A. H. 



Following Billopp's Route to Tottenville.* 



That the history, romance, and traditions of the Billopp House 

 are not yet overworked as subjects for literary effusion is evi- 

 denced by this article. Captain Christopher Billopp's celebrated 

 circumnavigation of Staten Island, and the conference held at the 

 house between Lord Howe, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and 

 Edward Rutledge, are of course mentioned, beside references to 

 James Fenimore Cooper's Water Witch, and to the gravestones 

 of Eugenia and Thomas Farmar Billopp. A brief description 

 of some of the historical features of Perth Amboy is also included 

 at the end. 



A. H. 



The Flora of the Sand Barrens of Southern Staten Island^ 



This is a very excellent presentation of the most conspicuous 

 floral elements in this interesting portion of our island, and it is 

 evident that the author missed but little, botanically, in his two 

 trips to the region, on Sept. 19, 1901, and May 29, 1902. It is 

 easy to understand why he failed to find Phlox suhulata L., Aster 

 concolor L., and Ascyrum hypericoides L., which are all but exter- 

 minated; but it seems somewhat strange that only one tree of 

 •Diospyros virginiana L. was noted, and only a few of Pinus vir- 

 giniana Mill., both of which are more or less abundant. 



As a list of plants the paper possesses a certain local interest 

 and value, but the author's conceptions of the geology of the 

 region are entirely erroneous ; and the interesting ecological sig- 

 nificance of the peculiar flora which prevails there was evidently 

 either not known to him or else was not understood or appreciated. 



^ Sarah Comstock, New York Times, September 7, 1913. 

 5 Stewart H. Burnham, Torreya 13 : 249-255. N 1913. 



