PREFACE 



This book deals chiefly with the distribution of the flora near 

 New York. Taxonomy and nomenclature are considered only as 

 fundamentals upon which the phytogeographical structure of the 

 book has been reared. This has been done because of the belief 

 that local flora lists and manuals are significant chiefly as they are 

 projectors of ideas rather than mere records of species, be those 

 records ever so accurate. The attempt to explain the origin of 

 the flora centering near the city, and the factors that have played 

 their part in shaping its present composition, has, it seems to the 

 writer, greater value than any enumeration of the species could 

 possibly have. 



The opportunity for deductive reasoning on the distribution of 

 our flora can be rightly based only on a complete and accurate 

 record of the occurrence of individual species, authenticated by 

 herbarium specimens and reliable field notes. Our knowledge, 

 therefore, is limited by the amount and the availability of such 

 information, and, in the present instance, no one is so conscious 

 of the scarcity of such material as the writer. The book, therefore, 

 is not so much a local flora as a method of writing one, — in some 

 ways it is little more than a record of the incompleteness of our 

 present knowledge. 



The work was begun at the New York Botanical Garden, in 

 January, 1909, and continued until March, 191 1. Since then it 

 has been carried on at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, where a 

 division of time between it and increasing administrative duties 

 became necessary. To the directors of both institutions grateful 

 acknowledgement is due for much help and encouragement. 



The book has been greatly strengthened by many notes on 

 distribution and other matters contributed by Messrs. E. P. 

 Bicknell and K. K. Mackenzie and by Dr. Britton, all of whom 

 have read the proofs. Without their help the book must have 

 been deficient in many respects, and the writer gratefully acknowl- 

 edges their cooperation. 



