rPnilP III FERTILE FRONDS UNIFORMLY SOMEWHAT LEAF-LIKE, 

 UKUUf 111 YET DIFFERING NOTICEABLY FROM STERILE FROWDS 



within fifteen miles of my home in Albany, I never 

 saw the plant until this summer some hundred miles 

 nearer the centre of the State. During a morning 

 call I chanced to mention that I was anxious to find 

 two or three ferns which were said to grow in the 

 neighborhood. My hostess told me that twenty-five 

 years before, on some limestone cliffs about eight 

 miles away, she had found two unknown ferns which 

 had been classified and labelled by a botanical friend. 

 Excusing herself she left me and soon returned with 

 carefully pressed specimens of the Purple Cliff 

 Brake and the little Rue Spleenwort, the two ferns 

 I was most eager to find. Such moments as 1 ex- 

 perienced then of long-deferred but peculiar satis- 

 faction go far toward making one an apostle of 

 hobbies. My pleasure was increased by the kind 

 offer to guide me to the spot which had yielded the 

 specimens. 



One morning soon after we were set down at the 

 little railway station from which we purposed to 

 walk to the already-mentioned cliffs. We were not 

 without misgivings as we followed an indefinite path 

 across some limestone quarries, for a plant may 

 easily disappear from a given station in the course of 

 twenty-five years. In a few moments the so-called 

 path disappeared in a fringe of bushes which evi- 

 dently marked the beginning of a precipitous de- 

 scent. Cautiously clinging to whatever we could 

 lay hold of, bushes, roots of trees or imbedded rocks, 

 we climbed over the cliff's side, still following the 

 semblance of a path. On our left a stream plunged 



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