450 Karl M. Wiegand and Arthur J. Eames 



anxious of seeing this plant in its native place, but having not received the particular 

 directions to find the place, as I had been promised of, besides that, being rather afraid 

 of running myself out of money necessary to come to Onondaga, as my pocket was 

 low and the distance considerable, I had to my own mortification, to give up all Ideas 

 of a search for it. 4(i The morning was rather suspicious for rain, as it had rained 

 some all night, I was detained at Ithaca until 11 o'clock, when I set out for the lake, 

 which is only two miles distance. My route was going on the east side of it. After 

 having crossed Cayuga Creek, with a great deal of difficulty to perform it, and coming 

 on the rising grounds, on the other side, 1 heard a very strong noise of falling water : 

 I followed the sound and came to one of the most romantick and beautiful falls of 

 this creek, I had ever seen ; the access even only to a sight of it is very difficult ; 

 but regretted very much that I had not had the least information about these falls 

 at the town, as I should have made it my business to visit them unincumbered with 

 my baggage, that I might have spent the day by it. The ledge of rocks confined in 

 a very narrow cove, and surrounded by very high hills ; impossible to ascend with a 

 load on my back on account of steepness ; over which this considerable stream drops 

 itself down, is a very interesting scene, and I doubt not if time and opportunity had 

 allowed me to make an examination of it, I might have been paid for the trouble 

 with something or other interesting or new in my line ; but to go back to the town 

 I thought to be too much ; so I had to go on and be satisfied with having had only a 

 peep at it. I got into my road again, where I observed along the banks of the creek 

 plants of Pentstemon pubescens, About a mile farther I came to the bank of the 

 lake. The shore which I came to was clear and gravelly with some common weeds 

 growing near it as thistles, mulleins, etc. I followed the shore of it for several miles, 

 being in my route. It is generally covered with oak, maple and hickory. Buph- 

 thalmum heleanthoides is the first yellow Syngenesia plant I seen this year, Taraxacum 

 excepted. A small Rose, similar to the one I called last year R. monticola, is very 

 plenty here and spreads a most agreeable fragrance through the air. A species of 

 Crataegus, Ludwigia nitida, Ceanothus Americanus. Lilium Canadense, Apocynum 

 androssemi folium, with a tall Molugo? Orchis fimbriata, Cornus with white berries, 

 Erigeron corymbosum, Typha angustifolia, Smyrnium cordatum, Mimulus alatus, 

 Galium hispidum, Veronica scutellata and some more common plants, I observed in 

 the meadows leading to the lake. I traveled as far as the town of Milton, where I 

 stood over night. The road, as soon as I had left the banks of the lake began to be 

 quit of interest, as the fences of both sides and cultivated fields, with continued 

 plantations and farms occasioned the road only to be covered with common weeds, 

 amongst which the Verbascum thapsus, Anthemis cotula, and Polygonum hydropiper, 

 have the upper hand. In one of the woods on this road I collected specimens of 

 Niphrodium filix-mas?' 47 



"David Thomas, who came from Pennsylvania in 1805, and settled in Cayuga Co. 

 near Aurora, was at first a teacher, and afterward the engineer of the western divi- 

 sion of the Erie Canal during its construction. He had an extensive botanic garden 

 at his place east of Levanna and was an enthusiastic botanist as well as cultivator of 

 plants. He was the first to distinguish and describe Ulmus racemosa, which he did in 

 the Amer. Jour, of Sci. Vol. XIX, p. 170. The plates of this and those of the 

 Dicentras in Vol. XXVI. were drawn by his son John J. Thomas, who made an 

 extensive collection of the local plants in 1827, when he was seventeen. This 

 herbarium is still well preserved and is frequently referred to in this catalogue. Some 

 of the specimens are very valuable, in showing the character of the ealier flora. For 

 the great kindness of Professor Thomas in going over with this herbarium in the 



48 "The supposed occurrence of Erica, (or Bryanthus taxifolius,) in this region, was, of course, 

 a mistake." — [Dudley. 1 



47 "As Pursh elsewhere refers to Nephrodium maiginale, the nearest relative of N. filix-mas, 

 no doubt the one above mentioned was Aspidium Goldianum, a species not then described, but 

 which is in his herbarium under the name of N. filix-mas, from an unknown American locality." 

 — [Dudley.'] 



