INTRODUCTION. 



In December, 1886, the writer, in answer to the request of the 

 Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara, promised to 

 prepare for their use a catalogue of the plants growing upon the 

 reservation and its vicinity. He had already on hand the record 

 of his observations made in the neighborhood of the Falls, during 

 a period of more than twenty years. But he well knew that in 

 order to give to the promised catalogue, such a degree of accuracy 

 and completeness as would make it of value to botanists and the 

 public, it would be necessary to revise and renew his observations 

 in the field. To this task, he devoted such leisure as was at his 

 command during the year 1887. The results are presented in this 

 Catalogue. Still he does not doubt that further investigations, 

 made in the vicinity of the Falls, will considerably increase the 

 number of species here recorded. In the more difficult genera of 

 the Gyperacece ami Gramince, demanding always in a large degree 

 tin 1 skill of the specialist, there must be omissions, more or less 

 numerous and important. Yet it is probable that no species, 

 really characteristic of the flora of Niagara, has been overlooked. 

 I q_ To aid him in making the list complete, the writer has regarded 

 ; ^it as his duty to consult, so far as was within his power, the observa- 

 tions made in the neighborhood of the Falls, by all other botanists. 

 It is, however, a matter for great regret that references to the 

 botany of the Falls, especially in the reports of the earlier 

 explorers, have proved so few in number. It seems probable that 

 Peter Kalm, the friend and correspondent of the great Lixne, 

 , left some record of the botanical observations, which he made 

 during his visit at Niagara, in the year 1750. But, the author has 

 failed to find any mention of its publication, either in the Swedish 

 tongue or in an English translation. If his journal still exists, its 

 publication, at the present day, could not but be welcomed as an 

 important contribution to the literature of American botany. It 

 seems not unlikely that the species of Hypericum and Lobelia, 

 which bear his name, were discovered by him near Table Eock. 



