140 Bulletin 187 



vicinity in 1911 by Mrs. Nellie F. Flynn. Other botanists from with- 

 out the State have found the Green Mountains attractive hunting 

 ground for rare plants, and have published lists that have been of 

 great assistance in the preparation of the new edition. To these and 

 to all helpers, whether lovers of plant life in Vermont or members 

 of the goodly fraternity of professional botanists, the committee would 

 gratefully acknowledge their indebtedness. 



In the present catalogue all names of species, varieties, and formae 

 are printed in boldface type ; and for two special reasons this list 

 follows the nomenclature of the revised Gray Manual. First, the 

 great majority of the members of the Vermont Botanical Club use 

 this manual, as more convenient to handle and less expensive than the 

 Illustrated Flora ; and secondly, the committee believe, that, what- 

 ever might be their personal opinion when these two authorities differ 

 regarding the proper name for a species, it would be confusing and 

 obtrusive to follow now the one authority and now the other. They 

 therefore decided to continue the practice adopted in the former 

 edition, and when the two authorities give different names, to print 

 after the Gray Manual name the Britton and Brown name in paren- 

 thesis, and to include all such synonyms in the index. Unfortunately 

 these synonyms, as may be seen by comparing the two editions of the 

 Vermont Flora, are far more numerous in the second edition than in 

 the first ; so that the proposed efforts at uniformity have not as yet 

 met with marked success. 



The synonymy has also been largely increased along a different 

 line — by the free introduction of English names, in accordance with 

 the growing practice of all our manuals. The greatly diminished 

 study of Greek and Latin even in our universities, and the keen 

 popular interest in the study of Natural History have made the old 

 techncal names of species to many meaningless and embarrassing; 

 and the demand for "English names," in spite of their frequent am- 

 biguity — it would seem — must needs be met. From these two causes 

 the synonyms in the index have been more than doubled. 



But the technical names printed in darker type have also been 

 increased from t^vo causes : — First, more careful and extended ex- 

 plorations have disclosed forms of plant life in Vermont not before 

 recognized ; and secondly, our expert authorities, especially in New 

 England, have become more keen-sighted and more disposed to dis- 

 tinguish, as species or varieties, forms that before had passed under 

 one name. In these two wavs alone the total number of names of 



