123 



years been a home for consumptives, but has now become city 

 property. 



Opposite the entrance gates near a low, rounded outcrop of 

 stone, we turn into the path leading off to the right (southeast- 

 ward), over the hill. Large white oaks are on our left, a tulip 

 tree near the path on the right, with several small blue beeches 

 nearby. The low, maple-leaf viburnum is much in evidence. 

 We do not go down the hill, but take the first turn to the left, 

 and strike for the bare ledges to the northeastward. A rough 

 sketch of the locality is given in text figure 2. On reaching the 

 first bare rock outcrop we find the green brier, the Virginia 

 creeper, the poison ivy, and the Japanese honeysuckle all 

 striving to cover it. At the further end of this outcrop grows 

 a form of the dewberry {Ruhus villosus), perhaps variety humi- 

 fusus. At the next bare spot we come upon a patch of the late 

 low blueberry, a plentiful supply of stunted black cherry (for 

 the soil here is extremely thin where it exists at all) and a few 

 other low trees. Descending slightly to the next bare ledge — 

 which is the last — we pass by two good sized black haws, both 

 about ten feet high, and come out at the northern terminus of 

 this whole formation. Here and there, in clefts and hollows in 

 the rock, grow red oak, American elm, staghorn sumac, late 

 low blueberry, Virginia creeper, sweet birch, bitternut hickory, 

 white ash, ailanthus, chestnut oak, and a few depauperate 

 plants of Ruhus allegheniensis , which seems to be the common 

 high bush blackberry of this locality. On the western edge are 

 the two small trees of the hop-hornbeam, growing as large as 

 they can with the limited supply of soil at their command.^ 

 The resemblance of their leaves to those of the sweet birch 

 nearby is striking, but they can be recognized by the bark, 

 and their twigs lack the wintergreen flavor of the birch. This 

 whole rocky ledge, wherever it is exposed, reveals the character- 

 istic banded structure of the Manhattan gneiss. 



If we descend now to the northward, passing a fine red oak 

 with two leaders (measuring 9 feet, 11 inches in circumference,' 

 4 feet from the ground at the north side) we regain the road, 

 which here turns to the eastward. Here we pause and look 

 northwestward down into the upper limits of the Shorakapkok 



" A large tree of the hop-hornbeam will be found near Spuyten Duyvil 

 Creek, at the northern foot of the "Hill of the Five Oaks." It has been incor- 

 rectly labelled "Carpinus caroliniana." 



