Vol 35 





BULLETIN 



No 2 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



FEBRUARY, 1908 



The ferns and flowering plants of Nantucket — I 



Eugene P. Bicknkli. 



The flora of Nantucket is marked by many features of more 

 than ordinary interest. On this seaward island are plants which, 

 giving expression to their insularity, have come to differ in greater 

 or less degree from their general species. Here, too, are plants 

 scarcely known or, indeed, known not at all elsewhere in this 

 country. Other plants find a place in the flora of New England 

 only by reason of their presence on Nantucket and not a few spe- 

 Jes here reach the extreme limit of their northward and eastward 

 an ge or find on this island the boundary of their coastwise exten- 

 sion towards the south. And not in all cases do these outlying 

 points in distribution mark merely the stop to a more or less con- 



uous range. The occurrence of certain species on Nantucket 

 cores a wide leap in regional position, even a separation of as much 



several hundred miles or more — in one case over a thousand 



es f rorr > the nearest point where the species is elsewhere 



known. 



Th 



A «ese noteworthy features in the flora of Nantucket are by no 



J?fns al one in giving distinction to the botany of the island. 



a en as a whole and in its broader aspects the flora is replete 



1 'nterest. The great abundance and wide dispersal over the 



M an °f certain species, some of them not generally common in 



sa me latitude, will scarcely escape the most casual observation, 



s SOme of these dominant plants, especially in their flowering 



Sor >, display themselves in masses and groupings of color which 



°mmand the eye. Nor will the botanist fail to be impressed by 



the 



and 



r-p _ — 



ULLRTin for January, 1908 (35 : 1-48, portrait) was issued 29 F 1908.] 



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