214 Rhodora [December 



hundreds of such records on the off chance that some wheat may turn 

 up among the chaff. 



To particularize with thoroughness would try the patience of the 

 editors and readers of Rhodora, as it has already exhausted that of 

 several workers on the flora and vegetation of Long Island. A few 

 examples will suffice: 



" V actinium Vitis-Idaea. Rocky soil, Bayville, L. I. — N. M. G." 

 Finding that plant on Long Island would be comparable to the recent 

 discovery of Empetrum nigrum at Montauk. 1 ^Yilliam C. Ferguson 

 Esq., of Hempstead, an enthusiastic and accurate student of the 

 flora of the island wrote for particulars to Dr. Grier, who referred 

 to a card catalog of species at the laboratory, merely recording the 

 extraordinary "find" as it is printed above. There is no specimen, 

 and the author attached so little importance to reporting this arctic- 

 alpine species from Long Island, that he was vague, to say the least, 

 in attempting to substantiate the record. 



" Thuja occidcntalis . . . White Cedar Swamp, Merrick, 

 L. I." This tree is unknown, outside of cultivation, on Long Island. 

 Merrick is in the town of Hempstead, on the south shore of the island, 

 and separated from the Cold Spring Harbor region by the ecologically 

 different vegetation of the Hempstead Plains. Merrick, Ronkonkoma, 

 and other localities which the author particularizes have no more to 

 do with the vicinity of Cold Spring Harbor than Montauk. Many 

 species should be cut from the list, notably those recorded from the 

 Plains, pine barren bogs, and the pitch pine harrens of the interior 

 of the island, — hardly geographically, and certainly not floristically, 

 the "vicinity" of Cold Spring Harbor. 



Perhaps the worst feature of the lists is the inclusion of many 

 species wholly unknown as wild plants, on Long Island and, of course, 

 not native. On the Havemeyer, DeForest, Love, Hodenpyl, and 

 Frank Bailey estates, as well as some others, there have been skillful 

 and successful attempts to cultivate rare, or beautiful, or interesting 

 plants. Upon what theory the author selected some of these for 

 inclusion in his lists of native or unreported plants of Long Island, 

 no one can guess. Ledum groenlandicum, Sarracenia flava, Trillium 

 grandiflorum, Hcxastijlis virginica, Sibbaldiopsis (Potcntilla) tridentata, 

 Amorpha fruiicosa, Calluna vulgaris, Paulovmia tomeniosa and Centau- 

 rea cyanus indicate a cheerful inclusiveness in the author's point of 

 view as to the material coming within the scope of local flora 

 studies. 



For a good many years Mr. Hicks has maintained a large and 

 successful nursery at Westbury, but no one would be more surprised 

 than he to see Pachysandra procumbens and Euonymus atropurpureus 

 selected from his list of garden plants for inclusion in a native flora 

 of Cold Spring Harbor. Both of these are credited to the nursery, 



1 Taylor, N. & Hill, H. S. The crowberry at Montauk, Long Island. Torreya 

 24: 87. 28 O 1924. 



