47 



"In our station certainly indigenous. About 200 individuals 

 were counted, all growing within the space of a few hundred 

 feet along a northerly hillside, from five to thirty feet above 

 the creek. The diversity of color, which the flowers on dif- 

 ferent plants display, indicates that the variety, viridens, 

 has no stability of character." 



The foregoing positive statement as to the indigenousness of 

 the plant here found stands in marked contrast with the now 

 generally accepted view that the species has been "probably 

 introduced." 



As might be expected, this interesting addition to the flora of 

 Buff'alo was the subject of considerable contemporary study and 

 investigation. Thus, experiments conducted by Miss Porter 

 aseertained that a certain wasp, determined at the time as 

 Vcspa diabolica, was an active pollinating agent. At a later 

 period, solicitous individuals, fearing that the plants might 

 become extinct at the original station, transplanted roots to 

 some outlying localities. In this manner, human agency became 

 a contributing factor in distribution, although the weight of the 

 evidence points to several natural centers as sources of distribu- 

 tion at least equally important. 



The discovery was made in Forest Lawn Cemetery, which, 

 together with Delaware Park to the north and northwest, was 

 originally a forested area. A visit to this, the original station 

 was made during the fourth week in September of the past 

 season. Forty-seven years had naturally wrought considerable 

 changes. Graves and monuments to the dead had encroached to 

 the very shoulder of the hillside, and down below, on the other 

 side of the creek, the grass was mown down to almost the 

 water's edge. However, along the thus isolated wooded hillside, 

 Serapias Helleborine was still found growing, if not in its erst- 

 while profusion, at least in ample numbers and in a partly 

 vigorous state. Among the trees observed there, were oaks, 

 maples and beeches. Some withered remains of a typical 

 Spring wood flora were still in evidence, and at this time of the 

 year Solidago latifolia was flowering in conspicuous masses. 



About a mile to the northeast of this, the original station, 

 and adjacent to Delaware Park, there was formerly a wooded 

 tract which up to twenty years ago still had the aspect of an 



