I was to start northward by the next noonday train, and had already laid out my forenoon’s work. Before breakfast I took my last look at the famous bridge, and my last stroll through Cedar Creek ravine. I had been there every day, I think, and had always found something new. This time it was a slippery-elm-tree by the saltpetre cave. I had brought away a twig, and was sitting in my door putting a lens upon it and upon a sedum specimen, when the veranda was suddenly taken possession of by a dozen or more of young men. They were just up from the railway station, and were deep in a discussion of ways and means,--tickets, luncheons, and time-tables. Then, in a momentary lull in the talk, I heard a quiet voice say, “Sedum.” They were a company of Johns Hopkins men out upon a geological trip. So I learned at noon when we met at the railway station; and a pleasant botanical hour I had with one or two of them as we rode northward. Now, on the piazza, they did not tarry long; time was precious to them also; and as soon as they had gone down to the bridge I set off in the opposite direction. My final ramble was to be to Lincoln Heights, to see once more that magnificent avenue of trees and that beautiful mountain prospect. The cerulean warbler was singing as usual, but there was no sign of his mate, though I could not do less than to wait a little while by the grapevine thicket in a vain hope of her appearance. Here, as in the ravine, I had not yet seen everything. Straight before me stood a locust tree, every branch hung with long, fragrant white clusters. I had overlooked it completely till now. If I learned nothing else in Virginia, I ought to have learned something about my limitations as an “observer.” But I need not have traveled so far for such a purpose. Wisdom so common as that may be picked up any day in a man’s own dooryard. INDEX Anemone, 153, 216. Arbor-vitæ, 217. Arbutus, trailing, 133, 148, 153, 158, 205. Asplenium Ruta-muraria, 227. Azalea:-- arborescens, 138. calendulacea, 138. nudiflora, 137, 206. vaseyi, 137. viscosa, 138. Barren strawberry, 153, 178. Blackbird:-- crow, 202. red-winged, 123. Bladder-nut, 216. Bloodroot, 153, 160, 178, 216. Bluebird, 125, 266. Blue-eyed grass, 244. Bobolink, 208. Box turtle, 248. Butterflies, 218. Buzzard, turkey, 126, 132, 159, 271. Cancer-root, 260. Carolina hemlock, 93. Catbird, 51, 173, 198, 275. Catchfly, scarlet, 244. Chat, 5, 126, 203, 239, 247, 257. Checkerberry, 133. Cheilanthes vestita, 229. Chewink, 132, 159. Chickadee, Carolina, 126, 148, 184, 196, 239. Chinaberry-tree, 8. Chokeberry, 132. Clintonia, white-flowered, 46. Columbine, 214, 218. Cowslip, 264. Crab-apple tree, 50. Cranesbill, 216. Creeper:-- black-and-white, 148, 155, 196, 264. brown, 41, 74, 78, 126. Crossbill, red, 159, 180, 249, 272. Cuckoo, 273. Cystopteris bulbifera, 228.