THE ^A^ERICP BOTpiST. 
Vol. IX. ^ \; BINGHAMTON. N. Y., JULY. 1905. Xo. 1. 
HOOSAC VALLEY AND ITS FLOV^ERS AND~ 
FERNS. 
BY GRACE GREYLOCK NILES. 
ILLUSTRATED BY KATHERIXE LEWERS AXD THE AUTHOR. 
"When my thoughts are sensible of change, 1 love to see and sit on 
rocks whicli I have known, and pry into their moss, and see unchange- 
ableness so established.'-THOREAU. 
q^HE closing of the Green and Taconic Mountains about 
-L the valley- of the Hoosac has thrown together some 
of the most ancient rock-formations of the world. The 
peculiar soft portions of the talcoid schists of the latter, 
averaging two thousand feet in thickness, have created 
abrupt erosions along the eastern slopes, resulting in deep 
and picturesque glens. The western sides are more 
gradual in their approach to the lowlands. 
Two ranges of Eolian limestone pass northward 
through the Valley, uniting near Mount Anthon3% Benn- 
ington, and extending through the County. The'Hoosac 
Highlands therefore, with their deeply eroded chasms 
through which laughing rills and roaring cascades reach 
the deep and peaceful plains, afford rare hiding places for 
beautiful flowers and graceful ferns. 
The western slopes of the Tunnel Range— the "forbid- 
den mountain," separating the Deerfield Valley from the 
Indian's early hunting grounds of the peaceful "Hoosuck'* 
send down several small streams which irregularly wind 
through small tamarack and pine swamp areas on their 
journey to the river. 
During May and June the borders of Tunnel Brook are 
fringed wath many beautiful species of early spring flowers. 
A climb up the mountain reveals the woodman's clearing 
massed in with trillium, clintonia, dogwood blossoms, 
jack-in-the-pulpit, dog's tooth Hlies, dwarf cornel and 
