100 



that the latter was one that had been transplanted to its pres- 

 ent location when a small beaver dam flooded a clump of the 

 lady's slippers. Other patches of them had been destroyed in 

 the last few years by the cutting of trees and stacking of wood 

 by park workmen. 



George T. Hastings 



Branch ville Nature Study Conference, May 19 to 21 



A party of about sixty members and friends of the Torrey 

 Botanical Club spent the week end at Branchville, where some 

 forty members of the Sussex County Naturalists Society joined 

 the party for the Saturday. As in other years, Mr. and Mrs. 

 William Gavin Taylor were the hosts. Unfortunately Mr. 

 Taylor, after completing all plans for the conference, had to be 

 away but Mrs. Taylor did double duty and saw that the plans 

 were successfully carried out. 



The conference included field trips led by Dr. Henry B. 

 Kummel, State Geologist of New Jersey, to study features of 

 local geology; by Mr. C. H. Curran of the American Museum 

 of Natural History to study insects; by Mr. and Mrs. S. Harm- 

 sted Chubb of the museum for bird study; and by Mr. Oliver 

 P. Medsger for plant study. There were also evening lectures and 

 time for informal discussion. 



Among the many plants in flower the large patches of man- 

 drake {Podophyllum peltatum) in pastures and fields near the 

 woods were especially noteworthy. Mr. Medsger suggested that 

 each patch of several hundred plants was in reality a single 

 plant, all being connected by underground stems. 



In the Springdale swamp an interesting zoning of plants was 

 noted. Going down a hill covered with sugar maples and oaks 

 the edge of the swamp was found to be lined with black ash, 

 red maple and various shrubs. Globe flower (Trollius laxus) was 

 abundant, with bastard toad flax (Commandra umbellata) also 

 in blossom and many plants of the grass of Parnassus (Par- 

 nassia caroliniana). Following the maples and ashes was a 

 fringe of dwarf birch {Betula pumila) and willows, the hoary 

 willow (Salix Candida) and the beaked willow (5. rostrata) were 

 common and with them an apparent hybrid. In some places 

 tamaracks {Larix laracina) grew in this zone. The more open 



