78 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
piece of furniture. We could boast of only a half ownership 
of the two chairs, since they were ours until meal-time, when 
we were expected to carry them out on the porch where we ate. 
The fare was plain and coarse, the breakfast and supper 
at least; our noon-day meal in the woods each day, consisted 
of fruit and the remains of the lunch brought from the house. 
Though these meals at the house were anything but enticing, 
yet we put up with the discomforts of everything gladly, as 
we had the mountains with us. I shall not soon forget those 
early morning breakfasts at ''sun-up" when we heard the birds 
at their matins,and watched the dew-drops that transformed 
the homely weeds about us into things of beauty ; or on cloudy 
mornings watched the fog clouds rise above Green River. In 
the evening, too, we sat here after tea to see the sun set and the 
great chestnut trees on the hill grow black against the sky, 
only their pendant clusters of blossoms giving them a touch of 
light here and there, while the whip-poor-will's call came to us 
from the rock hillside near. 
The picturesque little creek of this locality, — a mere brook 
in dry weather, with its banks covered with laurel, — is called 
Ivy Creek, the local name for the laurel (Kalmia lati folia) 
being 'Tvy." Laurel is a rare plant in this part of the state 
and is only found along this Green River ridge, straying 
down from the mountains of east Kentucky, where it is com- 
mon. Three species of huckleberries grew on the hills, while 
under the cliffs ferns grew in the greatest profusion. 
''That bonnie road 
That winds about the fernie brae," 
its borders "knee deep in ferns, half-hid in flowers" was a 
never-failing delight to us. The cinnamon fern, the spinulose 
and marginal shield ferns, the delicate lady fern, the more com- 
mon maiden-hair and others that delight, in deep shade and 
moisture grew here, while the face of the sandstone cliff was 
dotted over with masses of the delicate maiden-hair spleen- 
