THE P/aERICp BOTPIST. 
Vol. IX. BINGHAMTOX, N. Y., AUGUST. 190v5. No. 2. 
HOOSAC VALLEY AND ITS FLOWERS AND 
FERNS. 
BY GRACE GREYLOCK NILES. 
ILLUSTRATED BY KATHERIXE LEWER3 AND THE AUTHOR. 
[CONCLUDED.] 
ONE does not climb to the summit of Greylock togathef 
flowers, but rather as the philosopher Thoreau,* who 
restored his mind with memorv scenes of grandeur and 
beauty. He says: "For I had come up here not for 
sj-mpathy, or kindness, or society, but for novelty and 
adventure, and to see what nature had produced here." 
He speaks of the path up the spacious vallej' of the 
Bellows and continues that: "It seemed a road for the 
pilgrim to enter upon who would climb to the gates of 
Heaven." 
It is not possible to wander with ease through the 
pathless forest of this primeval brotherhood of peaks, and 
old bruin and his mates are forced to follow beaten trails 
through Wilbur's Park, to the Inner Hopper region and 
Bald Mountain beyond. I cannot imagine a more pleas- 
ureable or instructive holiday than a month spent explor- 
ing the deep recesses of the Greylock group, during June 
and Juh'. A study of the alpine blossoms compared with 
the flowers of the low'lands, might suggest more poetry 
and philosophy than is commonly suspected. 
There are several approaches to the summit of Grey- 
lock and one should become familiar with all these trails 
in order to fully appreciate the grandeur of the mountains- 
•H.D. Thoreau. Tuesday, "Week on the Concord and the Merrimac 
