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A novelty was the trail over Giant Ledge and Panther Moun- 

 tain, only recently finished by the State Conservation Depart- 

 ment, with C.C.C. labor, affording interesting plants of the 

 balsam fir-spruce forest association above 3200 feet, and wide 

 views in every direction. 



On Saturday the party motored to Watson's Hollow, west of 

 the Ashokan Reservoir, and, although caught in a shower, 

 found many flowering plants, ferns and mosses. An unusual 

 moss found by Mrs. Haring was Anomodon apicidatus . On Sun- 

 day, the enlarged party climbed the yellow-blazed state trail 

 from the camp ground at the head of Woodland Creek, up to 

 the new trail, which was followed north to Giant Ledge. Views 

 of the old slide, of 1820, with three new slides, made in the 

 flood of 1933, on the north face of Slide Mountain, 4204 feet, 

 highest of the Catskills, were clearly seen from the southern 

 ledges. The new trail passes along the brink of the 200-foot cliff 

 on the east side of Giant Ledge, for half a mile. It then descends 

 into a notch and climbs about 800 feet to the highest summit of 

 Panther Mountain, at 3750 feet. 



On these mountain tops are many vertical ledges, bearing 

 large, dense colonies of the RockTripe Lichen, Umhilicaria Muh- 

 lenbergii, of extraordinarily large size, specimens a foot in widest 

 diameter being common and the largest measuring fourteen 

 inches. Heavily fruiting specimens of the Mountain Ash, Pyrus 

 americana, made a brilliant display with their bright red berries. 

 Several asters and goldenrods made up the greater part of the 

 flowering plants. Fleshy fungi, including fine specimens of 

 Hydniim capiit-ursi, were numerous after a wet spell. Parmelia 

 Cladonia, the lacy tree lichen first reported in the club range on 

 Panther Mountain, thirty years ago, by Mrs. Carolyn Harris, 

 was common on dead and on some living firs and spruces, and 

 it is now known to occur on most high Catskill summits. The 

 most common Cladoniae were gracilis, squamosa, and coniocreae, 

 although on the northernmost high summit of Panther, an open 

 ledge bore colonies of C. rangiferina. Cetraria atlantica, pinastri 

 and oakesiana were noted. 



Some of the party followed the new trail all the way through 

 to Fox Hollow and State Route 28, in the Esopus Valley. This 

 would make an interesting trip in late spring, when more flower- 

 ing plants would be in bloom. In open pastures in Fox Hollow, 



