150 Rhodora [SEPTEMBER 
often species of difficulty since their geographic origin was unknown 
and their persistence usually very slight, many of them lasting only 
for a season or two, and often being found only at stages in their 
development not showing the characters for ready identification. 
Westford was one of the towns where there were woolen mills and 
where wool-waste was thus used. Miss Fletcher, in consequence, 
found from time to time plants not present in any manual available 
to her and began to turn to the Gray Herbarium for aid in their 
identification. The determination of her plants often required much 
time-consuming search and critical attention, but the specimens 
were always welcomed as examples of “waifs” and “casuals” that 
must be reckoned with in any close local flora work. 
Stimulated by success in finding several of these plants which proved 
to be of particular interest because introduced from widely remote 
parts of the world, Miss Fletcher for many years devoted special 
attention to wool-waste collecting, and met with much success. 
With the possible exceptions of the Rev. W. P. Alcott and Dr. Swan, 
she probably accomplished as much as any one in New England in 
this specialty. 
Miss Fletcher left her botanical collection to the Gray Herbarium 
where it has recently been deposited by her executor. It includes 630 
sheets, well prepared and carefully mounted. The plants are nearly 
all from Westford and, of course, noteworthy among them are speci- 
mens of her unusual “finds” on wool-waste. 
Miss Fletcher left to the New England Botanical Club her copiously 
annotated copy of the Middlesex Flora, a work in the preparation 
of which her services were, as we have seen, very helpful. 
In the noteworthy attempt to record the plants of the Boston 
District in a series of articles under the editorship of Messrs. Knowlton 
and Deane, which have long been running in our journal, Miss Flet- 
cher's specimens are frequently cited, often being the only repre- 
sentatives of her region. Indeed she has in some cases been the sole 
New England collector of the species in question. 
She has herself been an occasional contributor to our journal but 
in general, through great modesty, was reluctant to write for publi- 
cation, preferring to have her plants recorded by others. In her 
own words she wished to be regarded as “an observer, not a botanist.” 
With the death of Miss Fletcher there passed from New England 
botany a devoted personality, notable for loyalty to a limited field 
of observation in which she attained unusual results. 
