FIELD TRIPS OF THE CLUB 

 Trip of August 6, 1938, to the Vicinity of Albany, N. Y. 



The week-end trip in the vicinity of Albany, was under the 

 leadership of Dr. Homer D. House, State Botanist. It proved to 

 be a most enjoyable occasion with two sunny days, in a region 

 new to the club members. The lobby of the Wellington hotel, 

 Albany, was the meeting place and after our group was photo- 

 graphed for a local afternoon paper a start was made by cars 

 with the first stop at Glenmont, a few miles south of Albany, 

 where on the Norman's Kill shale formation was observed 

 "rock-garden like" growths of Selaginella rupestris, Cerastium 

 arvense, Woodsia ilvensis, and other unusual species. From Glen- 

 mont the group motored to the vicinity of Clarksville where a 

 portion of the gorge of the Oniskatou creek was traversed, 

 interesting for its mosses, lichens and liverworts, with such flow- 

 ering plants as Kalmia latifolia, Amelancliier amahilis and 

 Serapias hellehorine among the many species collected or ob- 

 served. From Clarksville the party went to the John Boyd 

 Thacher Park, near New Salem, where several hours were spent 

 along the top of the Helderberg escarpment, and also following 

 the trail beneath the overhanging ledges. This is a wooded area 

 of cliffs, small waterfalls and brooks, and much geological and 

 fossil history has its origin in the studies made here in past 

 decades. After twenty years of use as a public park, the native 

 vegetation plainly shows in many places the effects of abuse, 

 but most sections of the park away from the main trails are still 

 intensely interesting for the large variety of mosses and lichens, 

 flowering plants and rock-loving ferns, such as Camptosorus 

 rhizophyllus, Asplenium ruta-muraria, A. trichomanes, Poly- 

 podium and others. On our return toward Albany a short detour 

 was made taking us to the summit of Wolf hill, one of the highest 

 elevations of the northern escarpment of the Helderbergs, 

 where Habenaria hookeri and Arctostaphylos uva-ursi were 

 noted. The evening was spent in Doctor House's ofhce in the 

 State Museum in a discussion of the day's collections. 



Meeting in front of the State Museum early Sunday morning 

 the first stop was made on the plateau just west of Berlin. This 

 area is a poorly drained region with many boreal species, includ- 

 ing Abies halsamea, Picea rubra, Aster acuminatus, Oxalis onon- 

 is 



