iv PREFACE. 



r 



With regard to the title '^ Flora Boreali- Americana ; or the Botany of 

 the Northern Parts of British North America," it was adopted in conformity 

 with the titles of the other Natural History publications connected with Sir John 

 Franklin's important. Expeditions ; but it will be at once seen, from a very slight 

 inspection, that the work is neither a Flora of boreal America, in the sense given 

 to that term by Michaus, as comprehending all the northern half of the New 

 World, nor is it confined to the northern portions of British North America. 

 It was thought right to take advantage of all that was known, and of all the dis- 

 coveries to which the Author had access, of the vegetation of Canada, the most 

 southern possessions of British North America, and also of the labours of Botanists 

 on the Pacific side of North America (exclusive of California) and in Behring's 

 Straits. This was the more desirable, as these labours had been performed mainly 

 by British Naturalists, from the days of Newenham and Menzies, to those of 

 Beechey and the officers attached to the Hudson's Bay Company's Factories, 

 although their researches may have extended into the territories belonging to 

 the Russian Empire, or been pursued within the yet undefined limits claimed by 

 the United States, and bordering upon California. 



This Flora, therefore, is intended to present the vegetation of all that por- 

 tion of North America Proper, which, commencing with the extreme Arctic 

 Islands, stretches south to the boundary, so far as it has been ascertained, of the 

 United States and California. ' . 



L 



That many Plants yet remain to be discovered in so vast a territory, there 

 can exist no question. Such, however, has been the accuracy with which several 

 districts have been explored, that little, likely, is unknown which regards the 

 botany of the Arctic region, especially as its Flora is necessarily very limited by 

 the shortness of the Summer season, and a great similarity prevails in the pro- 

 ductions of those high latitudes, throughout Europe, Asia, and America. The 

 same remark may apply to the almost equally inhospitable climes of Labrador, 

 and even of Newfoundland. The more densely inhabited parts of Canada have 

 produced many native Botanists, while the absence of any lofty mountains in its 

 less visited (that is the Western) districts, renders it probable that our acquaint- 



