Niagara Falls 



1882 and discoveries of these pioneers of botanical science in this 

 ay vicinity. 



Probably the earliest botanist who had a permanent residence 

 in Buffalo, was Dr. John A. Kinnicutt: — in 1828, one of the 

 physicians of the village. In " The Flora of the State of New 

 York," Torrey makes acknowledgment of having received from 

 Dr. Kinnicutt some of our more notable plants; but, aside from 

 this brief mention, we have no account of his botanical labors. 



Upon the organization of the Buffalo Society of Natural 

 Sciences, in December, 1861, a Committee on Botany was 

 appointed, consisting of the Hon. George W. Clinton, the 

 Society's first President, Dr. Charles C. F. Gay, and the com- 

 piler of the present Catalogue. In the spring of 1 862, the com- 

 mittee began an investigation of the Flora of Buffalo and the 

 formation of an Herbarium, for its illustration. At the close of 

 the year 1863, two seasons having been spent in the field, the 

 Committee had detected and identified 936 species, or well- 

 marked varieties, of phaenogamous plants. A list of these, and 

 of 40 species of vascular cryptogams, which had also been col- 

 lected, was prepared by Judge Clinton and published in the 

 spring of 1864. 



The investigation thus begun, although not always prosecuted 

 with the assiduity which at first characterized it, has never since 

 ceased. At the present time the plants which have been col- 

 lected in our region, and of which specimens are contained in the 

 Herbarium of the Society, amount to not less than 2800 species. 

 It is confidently believed that except in the lower orders of the 

 Crypto gamae, the number of species belonging here, and which 

 still remain to be discovered, is comparatively small. Hence, the 

 Society has deemed the present time a proper one to give to the 

 botanical world a Catalogue of " The Plants of Buffalo and its 

 Vicinity." 



The Catalogue presents the name of all the plants which have 

 been detected within a radius of fifty miles of Buffalo and satis- 

 factorily identified. . . . 



472 



