8 PREFACE. 



the Island flora. In 1888 the Champlain Society allowed 

 its botanical work to pass into the hands of the other 

 author, Edward L. Rand, who, however, had been con- 

 nected with the work from its beginning. Soon after- 

 wards the authors consolidated the results of all the 

 botanical work on the Island, so far as they were able, 

 and henceforth carried on the work together, with such 

 assistance as could be procured from other botanists. 

 Although more or less incomplete, and somewhat hastily 

 prepared, this Catalogue is now presented, at the request 

 of many interested in the subject, as a preliminary con- 

 tribution to a Flora of Mount Desert Island. This is 

 done with the hope that it may serve as a means of excit- 

 ing interest in the undertaking, and thus make possible 

 a more complete catalogue in the near future. 



So far as the study of its flora is concerned. Mount De- 

 sert has no history. We are told by the early explorers 

 that wild roses and beach peas were abundant, and that 

 is all. No botanists native to the Island — if any there 

 were or are — have given us information as to its plants. 

 All such information has come from such botanists as have 

 chanced to go there from a distance, usually during the 

 summer months only. Even of these the known list is 

 not long, and only few antedate the beginning of syste- 

 matic work in 1880. It has, furthermore, been extremely 

 difficult to discover the names of these botanists, and to 

 consult their notes and collections, although the authors 

 have endeavored in many ways to accomplish this. The 

 result naturally has been far from satisfactory. In spite 

 of all these discouragements, however, the work on the 

 Flora has been carried on with perseverance. It is now 

 hoped that from the very fact of the publication of pres- 

 ent results help may be obtained for the future that other- 



