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THE BOTANICAL SYMPOSIUM AT OHIO PYLE, 

 PENNSYLVANIA 



The second Botanical Symposium, held at Ohio Pyle, Penn- 

 sylvania, during the week of July 2 to 9, as announced in 

 previous numbers of this Journal, was voted a great success by 

 the thirty persons in attendance. That we should come so far 

 was well appreciated by our Pittsburgh friends, who, although 

 concentrating their efforts on " Pittsburgh Day," did much 

 toward the general success of the meeting. Especial credit in 

 this connection is due to the young ladies, some of whom seemed 

 none the less attractive on account of their botanical innocence. 



Ohio Pyle is a small village at an altitude of about 1,200 feet, 

 situated among the western ranges of the Alleghany Mountains 

 on the Youghiogheny River at a point where that tortuous 

 stream almost forms a loop on itself by turning abrupt!)- nearly 

 backwards and after a course of several miles comes to within 

 a few rods of the point of departure, but some 80 feet nearer 

 sea-level ; in this distance it tumbles over a very pretty "falls" 

 and traverses a series of mad rapids, the rocky banks of which are 

 frequently inundated for short periods. The sandy pockets of 

 these banks are exceedingly rich in plants, many of them of 

 great interest and often of southern affinities. 



The more precipitous places are covered by a mass of Rhodo- 

 dendron maxiiiiuiii, at this time gorgeous in its profusion of 

 bloom. The so-called peninsula formed by the bend of the river 

 is a low flat forest of oak and chestnut, with a goodly number of 

 cucumber and tulip trees interspersed and an occasional white 

 pine and hemlock on the margin. Here many interesting plants 

 arc found but at this time the forest was especially attractive to 

 the mycologists on account of the richness of its fungus flora, 

 which had been brought out by the copious rains of the pre- 

 vious weeks. The steep and rocky mountain-sides and the 

 brooklets on the opposite sides of the river furnished much addi- 

 tional variety. 



The most interesting trees were the vMleghany bircli, cucumber 

 tree and I'ennsylvania maple ; o{ shrulxs, there were Pyrularia 



