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the long silky hairs of the scales being omitted in all but the 

 first. As the party descended the broken edge of the Palisades 

 above Alpine the rock cress, Arabis lyrata, showed masses of 

 white flowers in the crevices of the rocks, while numerous plants 

 of the sickle pod, A . canadensis, had clusters of flower buds down 

 close to the leaves. In a hedge along the road above the Pali- 

 sades one of the party stopped to examine an old bird's nest, 

 finding in it two eggs, one evidently that of the builder of the 

 nest, a chipping sparrow, though the egg was bleached white, 

 the other a cow bird's. Few birds were seen, the ones most 

 worthy of note being a few phoebes and a small flock of fox 

 sparrows. 



George T. Hastings 



Field Meeting of April 12 



Springs flowers were found to be late in bloom, on the joint 

 excursion of the Torrey Botanical Club and the New York 

 Section of the Green Mountain Club, in the South Mountain 

 Reservation of the Essex County Park system, on Saturday, 

 April 12. Apparently cool weather had slowed up the progress 

 of vegetation; the woods were still mostly brown and bare, but 

 along the streams, some greenery was afforded by the skunk 

 cabbage and green hellebore. Spice bush was only beginning to 

 bloom in a few sunny spots. A few hepaticas were found in 

 blossom. 



However, in the absence of blooming plants, the party of 

 twenty nine, under the leadership of Mr. Andrew Scarlett of 

 South Orange, N. J. found several objects of geological interest. 

 Chief among these was the Turtle Back Rocks, on First Watch- 

 ung Mountain, near Northfield avenue, a striking example of 

 incipient columnar formation in basalt. Boulders containing 

 marine shell casts, from the Silurian formations of the Upper 

 Hudson Valley, were found in glacial gravel in a pit, south of the 

 Orange Reservoir. Fresh exposures of the columnar basalt in 

 a quarry west of South Orange, were also of interest. 



Raymond H. Torrey 



Field Meeting of April 26 

 Spring had advanced swiftly in two weeks. The field meet- 

 ing of Saturday afternoon, April 26, was another joint excur- 



