VII 



tall stalks cut for a day's decoration, full of buds that, if let alone, would 

 grow and bloom for weeks and then ripen seed. Never is the Turk's cap lily, 

 that magnificent plant, admired and left for the delight of the next passers; 

 its stately stem, crowned with thirty, forty flowers, is cut or broken to the 

 ground and borne away, usually tied to the outside of the carriage, and at 

 the end of the trip, a sorry sight, with its tender flower stalks broken, and 

 its curled petals all in tatters, it is thrown without more ado on the rub- 

 bish heap. 



In England, a beautiful wild lady's slipper, extinct except on a single es- 

 tate in Durham, is as carefully preserved by the owner as if it were pheas- 

 ants or fallow-deer; cannot our lovely flowers find protectors in those who 

 thoughtlessly destroy them now ? No one accuses them of malice, but the 

 result is the same, and without a change of course the hapless blossoms 

 will die out forever from the ponds they once fringed with their beauty, 

 and the hollows among the hills that they once lighted up with their 

 flame. 



That the list which follows of the plants existing on the island in these 

 passing years is not complete, the compiler feels sure. Several species are 

 represented by one single individual, found in the depths of some swamp 

 or thicket, and until every clump of bushes has been thoroughly explored, 

 there is a chance for new discoveries, and brilliant ones, for some of our 

 Nantucket plants have never been found elsewhere in New England, and 

 others very rarely. The spring-flowering plants, carices especially, are the 

 most likely to be among the lacking ones, as the botanists who have made 

 the list what it is have seldom visited the island except from July to the 

 middle of September. 



The foundation of the work was a record of the plants collected and 

 identified by the writer in her early life, long before the era of local 

 catalogues. In late years, returning to her home after long absence, she 

 realized the remarkable character of the island flora, and determined to 

 publish her old list, with such additions as she could make in her short 

 occasional visits. 



" For a web begun, Heaven sends thread." Mr. L. L. Dame of Med- 

 ford, who was in the habit of spending part of his summers in Nan- 

 tucket, offered his help at once, and how valuable it proved, the follow- 

 ing pages will in some measure show. Other botanists who visittd the 

 island heard of the catalogue in progress, and added to it year after year. 

 Mr. Walter Deane of Cambridge, and Judge J. R. Churchill of Doi Ches- 

 ter, who often collect together, have contributed many a new name, and 

 Mr. Deane has given me the advantage of his nearness to the Botanic 



