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Dr. Torrey's house. Mrs. Hill's kind thought was relayed to the 

 field committee by Miss Margaret McKinney, Secretary of the 

 City Garden Club. Mrs. Hill fi.xed the date for April 18 because 

 about three acres of "Dutchman's Breeches" Dicentra Cucul- 

 laria, on her own place and underneath "Torrey's Cliff" would 

 then be in full bloom. So they proved to be, and an astonishing 

 display of this plant they were, on the talus of the cliffs, running 

 south from Niederhurst. None of the members had ever seen 

 such a display of these plants, with their delicately divided 

 leaves, and quaint, cream colored, white, or somewhat pinkish 

 double spurred blossoms. They are protected by the situation, 

 inaccessible from highways, from extermination. 



Mrs. Hill persuaded her neighbor, Mr. Lament, to call his 

 whole estate of about 300 acres, "Torrey's Cliff," as it was 

 known during Dr. Torrey's occupation, which seems to have 

 been about 1850-1860 (?) before the Torrey family moved to 

 Sterling, N. J., in Morris County. Mr. Lamont has Dr. Torrey's 

 early botanical w^orks in his library. Mrs. Hill led the party 

 through her rock garden, where Erythronium americanum, 

 Clayto7iia virginiana, and Dicentra Cucullaria, Sanguinaria 

 canadensis, Trillium erectum and Arisaema triphyllum were in 

 bloom together with interesting spring flowering exotics, along 

 the cliff path to the great expanse of fully flowering Dutch- 

 man's Breeches. The path then climbed into Mr. Lamont's 

 rock garden, near which, on a flat spot overlooking the Hudson, 

 was the site of the house occupied by Dr. Torrey. Mrs. Hill 

 has a photograph of it, which the field committee proposes to 

 reproduce in the 1937 schedule. Thomas \V. Lamont, 3rd, Mr. 

 Lamont's grandson, a bright, handsome lad who is interested 

 in natural history, became the leader here and took the party 

 about the grounds above the cliff. 



Returning to Mrs. Hill's home, some interesting blooming 

 exotics were viewed, most striking being the Pacific Coast 

 Erythronium Hendersoni, with mottled foliage like our eastern 

 E. americanum, but with deep purple flowers; also Scilla si- 

 birica, obviously well established and happy. Mrs. Hill has 

 some fine trees, including a notable weeping beech. She enter- 

 tained the party with tea, and a period of botanical talk ended 

 a pleasant afternoon, an event which all concerned hoped may 

 become an annual one in the field schedule. 



Raymond H. Torrey 



