48 



"oak grove." Gradually this section, the Amherst-Parkside 

 district, became studded with houses, although the trees were 

 spared as much as possible. Ten, or even five years ago, Sera- 

 pias Helleborine was conducting itself there in a rather wanton 

 and capricious manner. It fairly obtruded itself on the observ- 

 ing eye. Asphalt pavements and flagstone sidewalks, indeed, 

 smothered it, but in the uncut grass between sidewalk and curb 

 it persisted. It could hardly cope with the lawn mower, but in 

 garden plots alongside houses, and under shrubs, and along 

 hedge rows it secured a new lease of life. Under these congenial 

 conditions, some unusually vigorous plants developed, such as 

 are still to be found occasionally to this date. In unfavorable 

 situations it has clung tenaciously to the hard, clayey soil. 



During the fourth week of August last, half a dozen or more 

 specimens were observed on Amherst street growing in hard, 

 barren clay alongside the sidewalk and under the iron fence of 

 Delaware Park. A fruiting specimen was dug out with a chisel, 

 foreknowledge of the character of the soil having suggested the 

 advisability of using this implement instead of an ordinary 

 hand-trowel. On the other side of the street, occupied by dwell- 

 ings, there was still a vacant lot with some of the original 

 vegetation surviving amid piles of stone and building debris. 

 Several specimens were observed there growing apparently on 

 mounds of barren clay, but digging with the chisel revealed the 

 fact that the plants had forced their way up, from the original 

 ground level, through six to ten inches of compact clay that had 

 been dumped overhead. 



Thus, in the forty-seven years since it was first reported 

 Serapias Helleborine has persisted within the city limits of Buf- 

 falo with remarkable vitality and tenacity. Gradual reduction 

 of forested areas, the works of man — clearing, filling, grading — 

 by no means doomed it to extinction. In the Amherst-Parkside 

 section, it actually seems to have experienced a regeneration or 

 re-invigoration as open places were created and added sunlight 

 became available. Five or ten years ago, an observer unfamiliar 

 with antecedent conditions, seeing the plants there weed-like in 

 aspect and habitat, might have drawn conclusions not alto- 

 gether warranted. 



In the rest of Erie County, as already intimated, the species 

 is well distributed and fairly abundant, with indications that 



