The first effort toward a systematic study of the native plants of 

 this region was made by Pres. Edward Hitchcock' about 1817. The 

 results of his explorations were published in 1829, and for many years 

 very little was added to this list except what Prof. Tuckerman and 

 others published in contemporary scientific journals. In 1875 Prof. 

 Edward Tuckerman, - who for many years occupied the chair of his- 

 tory and botany in Amherst College, published his " Flora-Amherst- 

 iensis,'' in co-operation with Mr. Charles C. Frost, of Brattleboro, 

 Vermont. This list is based on Pres. Hitchcock's previous catalogue, 

 but is much more extensive, including as it does an elaborate list of 

 mosses, liverworts, lichens and fungi, and in all it contains nearly 3,000 

 species and varieties. It is unusually complete for its day, and repre- 

 sents the work of skilled observers and systematists. 



Besides being largely responsible for the flowering plants and vas- 

 cular cryptogams contained in the Flora, Prof. Tuckerman contrib- 

 uted a verj- elaborate list of lichens, a most perplexing group of plants. 

 He will always be remembered as the American pioneer in the study 

 of lichens, and was from the first a thorough master of this difficult 

 group, while he lived having no competitors. Even today his work 

 remains unsurpassed and ranks as a classic. 



The comprehensive list of mosses, liverworts, fungi, etc., was con- 

 tributed by Mr. Charles C. Frost, and quite a few of the fungi bear 

 his name as authority. This self-educated man, whose trade was that 

 of cobbler, spent his leisure moments in the study of these difficult 

 groups. 



In 1887 Dr. N. A. Cobb, ^ then a teacher of science at Williston 

 Seminary, but later government pathologist in New South Wales and 

 now with the Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, D. C , published 

 a revised edition of Prof. Tutkerman's catalogue, in which new plants 

 were added and the boundaries of others not so well known extended. 

 Since Dr. Cobb's catalogue in 1887 a few additions to the plants of 

 the region have been published, appearing largely in Rhodora. 



Professional collectors and students from the various educational 

 institutions located in the Connecticut valley have for years been 

 active in collecting herbaria, and some new and rare plants have been 



' E. Hitchcock— Catalogue of Plants growing without Cultivation in the 

 Vicinity of Amherst College. 



' E. Tuckerman — Catalogue of Plants growing without Cultivation within 

 Thirty Miles of Amherst College. 



? N. A. Cobb. — A List of Plants Found Growing Wild within Thirty Miles of 

 Amherst. 



