Rhodora 
JOURNAL OF 
THE NEW ENGLAND BOTANICAL CLUB 
Vol. 2 . November, 1900 No. 23 
THE OLD-TIME FLORA OF PROVIDENCE. 
WM. WHITMAN BAILEY. 
Iris always most interesting, when possible, to learn the former 
plant life of a great city. Especially is this so when one has himself 
collected over the same ground at a later date. His surprise and de- 
light are uncontrollable, to ascertain the presence of some essentially 
wild species on what is now a crowded thoroughfare, or where at 
present is located a public building. 
Thus, Dr. John Torrey, the noted co-worker with Dr. Asa Gray, 
kept a record of the plants growing in New York City, and the vicin- 
ity, some eighty years ago. It is funny enough to read to-day — when 
the original city extends into Westchester, and when the Greater New 
York has embraced Brooklyn and Staten Island — of the wilder- 
nesses teeming with wild-flowers in the suburban regions of Canal 
Street and Union Square. 
Fortunately, without the same intention, indeed with none but to 
make a passing note for his own benefit — with no attempt at thorough- 
ness even, — my father, when a young cadet at West Point, kept on his 
visits home to Providence a record of what he there found. He en- 
tered the Military Academy in 1828, graduating in 1832, and the re- 
cord contains dates to 1837 — at which time he was professor in his 
alma mater. 
The book he employed as a manual in those days was the well- 
known Z7oru/a Bostoniensis of Bigelow. It is now in my possession, 
and is indeed a precious heirloom. It is, of course, arranged on the 
Linnaean system, in which no attention is given to natural affinity. 
There were no illustrations, but these were added by my father from 
time to time, in neat, shaded pencil-drawings, the outline often being 
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