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second growth, if not original in some spots. It is only a few 
feet above high tide, and on the western border is a fresh meadow, 
gradually becoming salty toward the creek which enters the 
western end of Jamaica Bay. The moist conditions of the 
meadow and the sides of a still brook which meanders through 
it and out to the marsh encourage many herbaceous plants 
loving wet spots. 
The largest colony of the narrow-leaved Chain Fern Wood- 
wardia areolata, which the writer has ever seen occurs in the 
forest, being the commonest fern present. It is as thick as the 
Sensitive Fern is usually in such places. Just outside the woods 
grows the other Chain Fern, Woodwardia virginica, in abundance 
among the marsh grasses, with Royal Fern. 
Two beautifully fruiting Slime Moulds, Conatrichia ty- 
phoides and Didymium melanospermum were common in the 
shaded woods. In the fresh meadow were large colonies of many 
flowered specimens of Lilium superbum. The Great Burnet, 
Sanguisorba canadensis, was found in large stands. Polygala 
cruciata was very common on the sandy meadow soil, partly 
hidden by grasses and sedges. The change from fresh water 
species, such as pickerel weed and water arum in the brook, to 
brackish and salt water species is interesting as one follows the 
marsh west toward the head of the bay. 
This region promises to remain unaltered, because it is too 
low for real estate development and is protected because of its 
water supply uses. It is worth frequent visits at various seasons, 
for its plant associations are apparently unchanged since earlier 
days. : 
Trip oF AUGUST 2 
Doodletown Valley, Bear Mountain Park, Aug. 2. An in- 
teresting feature of an excursion of the club in the eastern part 
of the Bear Mountain Park was the discovery of another 
flourishing colony of the Prickly Pear Cactus, Opuntia Opuntia, 
on one of the granite knobs in the midst of the meadows back of 
lona Island. The cactus colony scheduled to be seen on this 
walk, on the northern knob, was observed and the party de- 
cided to look over the southern knob and see if the species oc- 
curred there too. It was promptly found, on the pegmatite dike 
of which these knobs are mostly composed. Utricularia vul- 
garis was in plentiful bloom in the stagnant pools along the 
