PREFACE. 



THE purpose of this work is to place in the hands of Canadian 

 botanists, in a connected form, the knowledge so far obtained of the 

 extent and distribution of the Flora of Canada. It is believed that this 

 Catalogue will satisfy a long-felt want, and enable botanists to add to, 

 or make more accurate, the data at present available, and in the course 

 of a few years remove the serious difficulties which now stand in the 

 way of a " Flora of Canada." 



Forty-three years ago Sir William Jackson Hooker published his 

 great work the " Flora Boreali Americana," and in it recorded all the 

 knowledge obtained of species and their distribution by the early 

 travellers and explorers. In the same year, 1840, Torrey and Gray 

 published their work on the Flora of North America, which included 

 the Polypetalse only. Three yeai-s later the Gamopetalse to the end of 

 the Composite, was published by the same authors. After the lapse of 

 thirty-five years Dr. Asa Gray published the remaining Gamopetala? 

 in the year 1878. The four works above enumerated contain all we 

 know of Canadian botany, beyond the lists which have appeared occa- 

 sionally in Canadian scientific publications. 



In giving the distribution of species I have freely availed myself of 

 all published records. My own observations, having extended from the 

 Eastern Provinces to the Pacific, enable me to speak with accuracy and 

 decision on many points which a more limited knowledge of distribution 

 would preclude. The collections made during the last ten years by the 

 gentlemen on the staff of the Geological and Natural History Survey in 

 various parts of Canada have been examined by me, and also many 

 other collections made in Ontario. 



Through the kindness of Principal Dawson I have likewise examined 

 the very large Herbarium of McGill College and the collections of Dr. 



