FIELD AND FOREST. . 21 



lection. He was a man of culture, and of enterprise, as is shown in 

 his efforts to promote the welfare of the people among whom he lived. 

 He took an active part in the Annual Expositions of Industry and Ag- 

 riculture held in Porto Rico, and his name is honorably mentioned in 

 the reports published on those occasions. 



E. Foreman. 



Remarks on the Flora of the Potomac. 



Some years ago an eminent member of our Club, on a visit to Bos- 

 ton, found a new variety offish, almost under the eyes of Agassiz, who 

 threatened to retaliate, by coming to Washington and discovering a 

 new species in the Potomac. His opportunity would have been good 

 judging by printed records. Numerous well equipped scientists leave 

 our Capital city every season to explore remote Territories, whose re- 

 ports are generally accessible, but the student of our local subjects finds 

 his sources of information limited to the old surveys of the adjoining 

 States, Brereton's Prodromus, and general works. 



It is ertainly not an unpromising field ; Alfred Smee in " My Gar- 

 den " shows how much mental food may be gathered from a few acres; 

 how much more does a large river offer, flowing for 350 miles through 

 a varied country? For many miles of its course it delights the lover of 

 natural scenery with views fully equal to the more celebrated North- 

 ern rivers. The foaming rapids at the Great Falls, the wild ravines 

 through which the river flows below, the pretty stretch of still water 

 formed by the canal dam at High Island, beloved of anglers, the view 

 from the Aqueduct Bridge at Georgetown, are not soon forgotten by 

 any one sensitive to impressions made by external nature. 



Between the Little Falls and Washington, the Maryland shore offers 

 no attraflions, but the other side is still covered with woods, except 

 where stone quarries have been opened. These, unfortunately, are 

 located at the most beautiful spots, where tiny waterfalls mark the ends 

 of small ravines made by little brooks on their way to the river. Along 

 these, as well as on the river-bank, are rock-gardens, such as no Olm- 

 sted or Downing could excel. It is no exaggeration to say that in the 

 early spring-time there are acres of the flowers which are most attract- 

 ive to frequenters of the woods, commencing with the^ snowy Blood- 



