Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-08-01
PLANTS AT NIAGARA.
A Botanist Studies Around the Great
Cataract.


From Garden and Forest.
Nature never fails to give us her over
torres when she plays her great sympho-
MES any more than do the great composers.
We cannot fail to catch the softening and
E,ellowing thus lent to the musical strain.
for hearing is involuntary. but must SO
often be taught to what Is right before
u.s. and our teachers are few, that We
not infrequently miss all but the most daz-
cling part of the outdoor picture. The
devotee of field science is never more aware
of this than on visiting Niagara Falls.
Standing 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 north
ward.
There is often scarcely a handful of soil
to the square foot. and sometimes apparent
ly none at all on the face of the great prec-
ipice. yet it is clothed with wild plants al
most from top to bottom. So hidden are
they by the perpendicular wall and the ar
tifcal coping above it that many of them
are hard to n AXE out. but new discoveries
are made at every change of position. The
coiumbne, Aquilegia Canadensis. loves the
spot so Well that it's bright red blossoms
appear sometimes after they have disap-
peared from gardens. The plant is the
most venturescme and hardy of any there,
ana appears IN a rock creElce Wnere nOth-
ing else but the bare wall is seen. 1t IS
difficult to understand how it subsists or
even clings to the wall, but 1t is content
and holds out no hands for sustenance ex-
cept to the humid air.
One or Two wild roses are there. and the
wild ,ooseberry sends up sturdy stems
near the top of the wall. A Spiraea, prob
ably tomentosa. is at home. and golden
rods Rhus tcxicodendron and probably
Rhus radicans, as 1t is everywhere about
the falls, and Ampelopsis quinquefoia.
CreeperS are rampant. hardly less than
in the woods on Goat Island, where the
wild grape attains great size and runs
freely over the tops of quite tall trees.
The will grape on the edge of the gorge
was just setting its crop and showed a
luxuriance of punches that. would charm
a vineyar,list- Bittersweet and Soianun,
Duicamara 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 seen rising from Its 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 it's flora accept
able The soil is naturally thin and ster-
lie. so that the effort to turn the river bank
on the mainland into a cultivated park is
so far indifferently successful. and the
ambitious evergreens that were planted On
Bath Island are all gone. But this makes
no difference with the wild plants: they
flourish everywhere and are as Indifferent
to the soii any but actual air plants can
be.
The widest of our native plants do not
yield naturally to cultivation. because they
demand atmospheric conditions that cannot
be transplanted with them. The result is
that they linger awhile out of their native
element and then disappear. Let Niagara
pretty generally alone and 1t will never
want for fora that is appropriate to it,
There Is very doubtful need of the forest
tree nursery that is made to dfsf1sure a
part of Goat Island. or the thicket Of snow
berry. Symphonic arpus racemosus, that be-
gins TO shut in the drive from Bath Island