June 15, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
759 
Botany 
and Nature Study at Milburn 
By W. G. BOWDOIN 
NOT A BRIDGE OF SIZE. 
A n enthusiastic party assembled at Milburn, 
N. J., under the leadership of Miss Ger¬ 
trude S. Burlingham, Ph.D., of the Brook¬ 
lyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, to study 
botany and other subjects more or less related. 
The locality is historic, the battle of Springfield 
having been not far from the hunting ground. 
Skirting the local paper m.ll where all sorts 
and conditions of wrapping paper are manufac¬ 
tured, the party came upon the deer paddock of 
the Essex County' Park preserve. Nearby there 
was a wealth of wild flowers and many birds. 
One of the flrst observations was a blackberry 
bush which had been attacked by a rust that had 
covered its foliage with yellow coloration. The 
color was exceedingly pleasant, but the plant’s 
leaves were curling together in a manner that 
suggested death and destruction. Nearby some 
blue-eyed grass was befittingly growing, since 
blue is complementary to yellow. This grass be¬ 
longs to the iris family. It is sometimes called 
blue star. As on most of the other excursions 
the common cinquefoil was found more or less 
abundantly. Some English plantain was bloom¬ 
ing not far away. In Shapespeare's time the 
plantain leaf was used as a plaster for broken 
shins, and its cooling application seems to be 
instinctively known to all schoolboys. The old 
herbals were full of cures credited to this plant. 
So frequently does it spring up in the track of 
the colonist that the Indians called it “English¬ 
man's foot.” 
Passing by a sturdy oak, some poison ivy 
was seen growing luxuriantly upon this 
tree intermingled with woodbine, making 
a curious combination of the harmless 
and the -toxic. The woodbine has five 
leaflets, however, while the poison ivy has 
but three. The ivy was in flower; the 
woodbine will flower later. The wood¬ 
bine is the plant from which the Greeks 
and Romans got some of their ornamen¬ 
tal inspiration. 
A sassafras tree in the making could 
have traced its ancestry back as far as 
the Tertiary if it had cared to undertake 
the fascination of “family trees.” 
Some young mulleins grew by the 
wayside. These impart a natural glow to 
complexions. In Germany this plant is 
sometimes cherished under the name of 
“American velvet plant” and given a 
place in the house with the dignity of a 
pot. 
In descending the precipitous sides of 
a dingle, a member of the madder family 
was met with, in the person of a sweet- 
scented bedstraw. The blooms were ex¬ 
ceedingly small, but the plant has, when 
dried, a pleasant fragrance. Some of 
the late spring beauties were found. The 
flower is upright, but the buds and seeds 
both depend. The jewel weed, or touch-me-not, 
was in bloom. Specimens found on this trip 
were of considerable size. This plant throws 
its seeds to some distance when the pod bursts. 
The osmundas were common and luxuriant. The 
Christmas fern was another find. So also was 
the sensitive fern. But the most delightful of 
all the ferns was the maiden hair. These were 
fairly numerous. 
The Milburn woods are somewhat damp and 
swampy. Little streamlets flow here and there, 
and many ponds are nearby. Much aquatic vege¬ 
tation grows along banks and in the water. 
Dragon flies could be seen darting in search and 
pursuit of their pre}^ A curious habit on the 
part of dragon flies is that various species feed 
in certain well-defined air stratums. Among the 
swampy plants observed were the arrowhead, 
horsetails in large numbers, skunk cabbage, now 
well advanced, and many of the grasses and 
sedges. 
Passage through the woods was hampered 
by the cat briers. This served as an extra stimu¬ 
lation, however, when the party came upon a 
carrion flower, beautiful in spite of the carrion¬ 
like odor. 
The party came upon a magnificent spider's 
web. Did you ever notice one of these .geo¬ 
metrical triumphs on the part of a sp'ider? This 
masterly engineering work in web construction 
is overlooked by most of us because it is so 
common. 
Near the spider's web was growing some 
basswoods. All the leaves on them were full of 
galls. Some of these were growing above and 
some below the leaf surfaces. The appearance 
was curious in the extreme. Another gall-bear¬ 
ing shrub observed was a hobble bush or moose- 
wood. The galls on it differed entirely from 
those on the basswoods. The oak galls were still 
another variety to which attention was drawn 
by actual observation. 
Some fungi, in which the leader was espec’aily 
interested, was found growing on charred wood 
left by campers. These proved to be mycena. 
The color differed in the several specimens, one 
being a brilliant red, but they all went into the 
vasculum for laboratory e.xamination and study. 
The lifting power of mushrooms is exceedingly 
great and is capable of displacing large bould¬ 
ers. In one case a cement sidewalk was 
penetrated by growing mushrooms. In Russia 
it was stated by one of those on this trip to be 
a custom to gather mushrooms indiscriminately, 
good and bad, harmless and toxic, and all of 
the gatherings are then soaked in vinegar after 
which they are drained and then eaten without 
danger. Some little caution may safely be exer¬ 
cised in following the Russian example, however. 
Other flowers that were gathered on this ex¬ 
pedition were the false Solomon’s seal, the true 
Solomon’s seal, bread and butter, the meadow 
rue, live-for-ever, yellow-eyed grass, rattlesnake 
plantain, one of the orchids, everlasting, cancer 
root, one of the broom rapes, dogwood in flower, 
partridge berry, princess pine, spotted winter- 
green, very similar to that found by the leader 
some time ago in North Carolina; jack-in-the- 
pulpit, nearly two feet in height; deerberry, 
goat’s beard, not yet in flower; wild rhododen¬ 
drons, wild geraniums, Canada violets, pinks and 
early buttercups. 
While the botanists were making these rich 
finds, the bird lovers had not been idle, but 
working with field and opera glasses they had 
seen and identified the warbler, red-eyed vireo, 
red-winged blackbird, thrush, woodpecker, whose 
attacks had scarred one of the cherry trees seen; 
redstart, catbird, black-billed cuckoo, ovenbird, 
the ground robin and indigo bird. 
New Publications. 
Lloyd's Register of Yachts, by Lloyds, No. 7 
Fenchurch street, London, England. Pr.ce, 
£ I IS. 
The 1912 Lloyd’s Register of Yachts has just 
been issued. It is the same handsome volume 
as its predecessors, but contains a number of 
valuable addenda, classified with the usual 
Lloyd's accuracy. Its information includes par¬ 
ticulars and distinguishing flags of yachts and 
motor boats, alphabetical list of owners with 
their addresses, flags of the principal yacht and 
boat clubs, with the names of the officers, etc. 
It is a volume of 1,054 pages, or twenty-four 
more than the volume for 1911. It seems im¬ 
probable that any yacht or lioat owner would 
want to be without a copy of this work. 
Logging and Lumbering, by C. A. Schenck. L. 
C. Wittich, Germany. 
This is intended as a manual for forest schools, 
the author being Director of Biltmore School. 
Ihidoubtedly, for this purpose it is unsurpassed. 
It is, however, a volume whose contents should 
he read by everybody interested in conservation 
of forests. 
