greensward and avoided treading on the Wake Robin when 

 ambling through the woods. A clump of poison ivy, for two 

 seasons nurtured by one of the settlers near a beautiful young 

 white pine at the corner of his house, was properly dug up and 

 disposed of. Shelving rock shelters were approached with diffi- 

 dence lest a lurking rattler should be disturbed. The gray birch 

 was no longer girdled in an effort to slice large slabs of bark 

 for various uses. One lady, who gathered mushrooms fre- 

 quently, became aware for the first time of the vast number of 

 imposters parading under the guise of an innocent "mush- 

 room." One youngster, eleven years of age, who had been com- 

 ing to the colony since he was three, told his father one week- 

 end, "For the first time my eyes are open to the wonders of 

 this place. To think how blind I have been all these years!" 



From these daily trips there developed two outgrowths. Sev- 

 eral members suggested the value of permanent labels along the 

 trails we had been following. The natural result was a Nature 

 Trail. Different individuals undertook the duty of learning and 

 concisely describing on small placards the specific objects of in- 

 terest along the way. These brief legends were then printed with 

 black India ink on white enameled boards, and, after being shel- 

 laced to assure the weather-proofing, were placed on or near 

 the items described. This might have been a tree, a flower, a 

 rock, a puff-ball or any other thing along the way. 



Then one member suggested that it would be worth while 

 to gather different types of mosses and place them side by side 

 in a permanent collection so that all could see the differences 

 and learn to distinguish them more readily in the field. Out of 

 this thought grew a museum. The corporation that built the 

 colony turned over for our use a small building about ten feet 

 by ten, formerly used as an office. Here we collected about 

 twenty kinds of mosses, appropriately labelled, and arranged in 

 conditions as closely approximating their natural habitats as 

 possible, such as on rocks, rotten stumps, fertile soil, and in 

 water. Different kinds of ferns were pressed, mounted and hung 

 on the walls side by side. The same was done to flowers, tree 

 leaves, those fungi that could last without rotting, rocks, and 

 as many different natural objects as time and space per- 

 mitted. One of the members brought a large aquarium which 

 was stocked with plants and animals found in the lake. A few 



