71 



and avenues of an ancient and ruined city. Hence the name by 

 which the place is known: — " Rock City." Here, in sheltered spots, 

 the snow and ice sometimes remain all the year long. And here 

 Epigcea repcns, Ilex monticola, Lister a cor data, the two Clintonias, 

 and other plants delighting in a cool and moist atmosphere, luxuriate. 



The lake shore, on either side, affords plants well recognized as 

 maritime : — as, for example, Cakile Americana, Lathyrus maritimus, 

 Euphorbia polygonifolia, and Triplasis purpurea. Hudsonia tomentosa, 

 attributed to the shores of the great lakes, has not yet been seen. 

 But with the others grow some plants, not known to inhabit the sea- 

 coast, and not met with inland; such as Artemisia Canadensis, Gly 

 cyrrhiza lepidota and Corispermtim hyssopifolium. With us, Ptelea 

 trifoliata, and Juniperus communis are always lake-shore plants; and 

 Lithospermum hirtum is rarely met with elsewhere. 



The atmosphere at the Falls of Niagara is charged, in an extraor- 

 dinary degree, with moisture. The spray of the cataract, descending 

 in some places in an incessant shower, produces a fitting habitat for 

 several species of plants, elsewhere, rarely, if ever, seen within our lim- 

 its. Hypericum Kalmianum, Parnassia Caroliniana, Lobelia Kalmii, 

 Campanula rotundifolia, Utricularia cornuta, Gentiana crinita, Carex 

 (Ederi, etc., here find congenial environment. At Portage, similar 

 conditions sustain several of the same species, and beside them 

 Saxifraga aizoides, Primula Mistassinica and Pinguicula vulgaris. 

 In the gorge of both rivers, Pterospora Andromedea is found. 



At Point Abino, on the Canadian shore of Lake Erie, at the dis- 

 tance of eleven miles from Buffalo, the sand of the beach has been 

 drifted by the winds into dunes, sometimes a hundred feet in height, 

 covered with trees of ancient growth. We have not met, in any 

 other place, with Corydalis flavula, Sisymbrium Thaliana, the rose- 

 colored Arabis Drummondi, nor, of late years, the most fragrant of 

 our native plants, Moneses uniflora. Here, too, in the crevices of 

 the corniferous limestone, lying but a little above the surface of the 

 lake and kept constantly wet by its waters, Linum striatum is 

 found, growing in abundance : — its only locality known in our 

 vicinity. Near it occurs a form of LLypericum Kalmianum, with 

 smaller corymbs, but larger flowers, than it produces at the Falls. 



In the immediate vicinity of Buffalo only small patches of 

 sphagnous bogs are found. But at the distance of ten or fifteen 



