The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1896-09-25
PLANTS AT NIAGARA.
Studies of Botanist Around the
Great Cataract
Many Varieties of Flowers Are Found in
the Scant Soil of the Rocky
Region-The Hand OF Man
Not Necessary.

Nature never fails to give us her over
tones when she plays her great sym
phonies. any more than do the great
composers. We cannot fail to catch
the softening and meIlowing thus lent
to the musical strain. for hearing is in
voluntary. but we must so often be
taught to see what is right before us.
and cur teachers are 50 few, that we not
infrequently miss all but the most
dazzling part of the outdoor picture.
The devotee of field science is never
more aware of this than on visiting
Niagara Falls. Standing n fortnight
ago on Prospect Point, perhaps the
most striking scenic spot in the world
| leaned over the edge of the sheer and
partly overhanging wall and looked
down, not at the great sheet of water.
but at the rocks that continue the gorge
northward-
There is often scarcely handful of
soil To the square foot. and sometimes
apparently none at all on the face of
the great precipice. yet il is clothed
with wild plants almost from top to
bottom. So hidden are they by the per
pendicular wall and the artificial COP
ing above il that many of them are hard
To make out but new discoveries are
made AT every change of position The
coIumbine. Aquilegia Canadcnsis, loves
the spot so well that it's bright red bios
son : appear sometimes after they have
disappeared from gardens. The plant
is the most venturCSome and hardy OF
any there. and appears i'll rock crcvicc
where nothing: else but the bare wall i
seen. IT is difficult 10 understand how
il subsistS or even clings to the wall.
but il is content and holds out no hands
for sustenance except TO the humid air.
One or two wild roses are there. and the
wild gooseberry sends up sturdy stems
near the top of the wall. \ Spiraea.
probably tomentosa, is at home, ami
golden rods, Rhus toNicodendron and
proba bly, Rhus ralicans, as IL is every
where about the falls, and Ampelopsis
quinquefolia. Creepers are rampant.
hardly less so than in the woods on
Goat island, where the wild grape at
tainS great size and runs freely over the
tops of quite tall trees The wild
grape on the edge of the gorge was
just setting its crop and showed =
luNuriance of lunches that would
charm a vineyardist. Bittersweet and
Solanum Dulcamara are also there.
These vines do not venture far down the
wall. aS they need soil. but they are
in the spirit of the place. and are seer
rising from it's base and sometimes
making their way far up the moist
surface, while the Aquilegia and some
smaller greenery that it Is hard to make
out in the distance crop out of every
seam and ridge and terrace from base
to summit
1t is this acceptance of the wild spirit
of Niagara that makes its flora 80 ac-
ceptable. The soil is naturally thin
and sterile. 50 that the effort to turn
s. the river bank on the mainland into u
cultivated park is 50 far Indifferent
" successful. and the ambitious ever
greens that were planted on Bath island
are all gone. But this makes no differ
ence with the wild plants; they flour
ish everywhere and are as Indifferent
10 the soil as any but actual air plants
can be.
The widest of our native plants do
not yield naturally to cultivation, be
cause they demand atmospheric condi-
tions that cannot be tranSplanted
with them. The result is that they
linger awhile out of their native ele-
ment and then disappear Let Niagara
pretty generally alone and il Will never
want for flora that is appropriate to
it. There is very doubtful need of the
forest tree nursery that is made to dis
figure n part of Goat island. or the
thicket of snowberry, Symphoricarpus
racemosus, that begins To shut in the
drive from Bath island.-Gartien and
Forest.