36 PROCEEDINGS: BOSTON SOCIETY NATURAL HISTORY. 



luxuriant green, the tall, mallow, gay golden rods and wild China- 

 asters are swept by the heaving gales." 



Joseph Charles Tache*, in 1885 1 , published a book which in so far 

 as it refers to Sable Island is very little but a free translation of J. B. 

 Gilpin's "Sable Island." In a different form he reproduces Gil- 

 pin's paragraph on the botanical productions of the island. For 

 some reason he feels that Gilpin's estimate of the size of the flora was 

 not adequate, and he, Tache, says 2 , "On a dit qu'un botaniste pourrait 

 y observer trente a quarante espeees ou varietes; mais il est certain 

 qu'un catalogue complet des plantes de Pile et de ses rivages, qui com- 

 prendrait les mousses, les algues et les plantes d'occasion, aurait beau- 

 coup plus d'etendue que cela." 



In 1890, an anonymous writer 3 makes the first mention of the oc- 

 currence of blackberries on the island: "On the shores of the lake, 

 which extends for about eight miles, may be gathered in their season 

 the wild pea, wild roses, lilies, asters, strawberries, blackberries, and 

 cranberries. From these wild fruits a small revenue is derived by the 

 men of the life-saving station, who gather and ship them to Nova 

 Scotia." 



The Rev. George Patterson in his article 4 devotes one sentence to 

 the flowers and fruits. All of the species mentioned occur in Gilpin's 

 "Sable Island" with almost the identical wording, and Patterson re- 

 fers to him in a footnote on the following page. 



The first naturalist to visit Sable Island was Dr. Jonathan Dwight, 

 Jr. From the 28th of May until the 14th of June, 1894, he was on 

 the island with the special object of ascertaining the breeding-home 

 and habits of the Ipswich Sparrow, which were at that time quite 

 unknown. This he accomplished very successfully. 



Although it was quite early in the season, Dr. Dwight gave con- 

 siderable attention to the flora. "It 5 was impossible to study sat- 

 isfactorily the flora of Sable Island, for at the time of my visit few 

 of the plants had more than just opened their earliest buds, and of 



1 Tache, Joseph Charles: Les Sablons (L'lle de Sable) et L'lle Saint-Bar- 

 nabe, 1-354 (1885). 

 2 1 c. 29. 



3 Anonymous: The Graveyard of the Atlantic. All the Year Round, 

 Ixvi. 517-522 (1890). 



4 Patterson, Rev. George: Sable Island, Its History and Phenomena. 

 Trans. Roy. Soc. Can. xii. 2. 5 (1894). 



6 Dwight, Jonathan, Jr.: The Ipswich Sparrow. Mem. Nuttall Ornith. 

 Club, ii. 12-13 (1895). 



