The Flora of the Cayuga Lake Basin 451 



writer's presence and stating many interesting facts, the latter wishes here to make 

 due acknowledgement. 



" Dr. Aikin, a young medical student and pupil of Professor Amos Eaton, visited 

 this region about 1830, and reported several rare plants. Dr. Jedediah Smith of 

 Geneva, Dr. Alex. Thompson of Aurora, Dr. H. P. Sartwell of Perm Van and Dr. 

 S. B. Bradley of Greece all botanized more or less within our limits, and discovered 

 many interesting things. Dr. Asa Gray, in 1831, visited the Montezuma Marshes 

 and this lake, stopping at Sheldrake, and finding two rare plants Pogonia pendula and 

 Linaria Elatinc. In Seneca Co., probably, he obtained Goodyera Mensiesii. He visited 

 Ithaca but did not remain long. Rev. J. W. Chickering and Prof. W. H. Brewer 

 collected several hundred specimens between Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, while they 

 were teachers at Ovid. 



" From 1860 to 1865, the Hon. H. B. Lord reported a considerable number of 

 interesting plants and having been a resident of Ludlowville and Ithaca for many 

 years he has given the younger generation of botanists very material aid in regard to 

 localities and rare plants. He was particularly interested in Carices and gave to the 

 University a valuable local collection, at the time of its opening. His name often 

 occurs in this catalogue, but not nearly so often as his intimate and accurate knowledge 

 of our plants would deserve. 



"At the opening of Cornell University in 1869, Professor A. N. Prentiss of Michi- 

 gan Agr. Coll. was made Professor of Botany and Horticulture, and in spite of his 

 administrative and other duties, has always manifested great interest in the develop- 

 ment of the local flora. Under his careful guidance several special students, among 

 them Mr. Theo. B. Comstock and Mr. David S. Jordan, both occupying prominent 

 college positions at present, became deeply interested in the explorations and the 

 latter summarized during his Senior year (1872), the results of his own experience 

 and that of his friends in a manuscript catalogue. This was compiled from memory; 

 and largely without the aid of preserved specimens and therefore contained some 

 errors. But after throwing these out it still shows about 650 species. In this 

 catalogue were 33 species of Carices, 35 species of Grasses, 6 Willows and 79 

 Compositae. 



" There was at that time a group of men in the University who were strongly 

 interested in botany and who never ceased to keep up that interest. These were 

 Messrs H. E. Copeland, W. A. Kellermann, J. C. Branner, and the writer. Soon 

 after these men left college, there came an excellent botanical student, Mr. F. B. 

 Hine, whose name is mentioned frequently in the following pages. Then came 

 Messrs. William Trelease, F. H. Severance and Charles Atwood, who added to our 

 knowledge of the flora. Especially associated with my own work of exploration in 

 1881 and 1882, Mr. F. Cooper Curtice, now of the U. S. Geological Survey, rendered 

 most efficient aid by his excellent observing powers. 



" The names of Mrs. Professor Brun, Miss I. Howland, Mr. F. L. Kilborne ; and 

 among recent students, Mr. O. E. Pearce, Messrs. A. L. and F. V. Coville will be 

 found after their discoveries in the following catalogue indicating in a slight way the 

 aid they have rendered in voluntarily reporting localities or specimens. 



"Although the writer compiled a manuscript catalogue in 1876, containing 950 

 flowering plants, and has written out special catalogues of the Compositae, Gramineae 

 and Vascular Cryptogamia, since that time his work on the flora for the past five 

 years has been more systematic than before. He has kept slip records of the occur- 

 rence of every plant noticed on the numerous excursions made, providing there was- 

 any reason for supposing the plant was in the least uncommon. In some cases, as in 

 some of the orchids and sedges these separate entries for distinct localities have been 

 fifty or seventy-five, in other cases comparatively few. That the number of discov- 

 eries of species alone, new to the flora, has been 510 more than the number in Dr. 

 Jordan's catalogue is in itself significant of the industry of the survey." 



