xxiv THE CAYUGA FLORA. 



number of interesting plants and having been a resident of hudlow- 

 ville 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. Pren- 

 tiss of Michigan Agr. Coll. was made Professor of Botany and Horti- 

 culture, and in spite of his administrative and other duties, has al- 

 ways manifested great interest in the development of the local flora. 

 Under his careful guidance several special students, among them Mr. 

 Theo. B. Comstock and Mr. David S. Jordan, both occupying promi- 

 nent college positions at present, became deeply interested in the ex- 

 plorations and the latter summarized during his .Senior year (1872), 

 the results of his own experience and that of his friends in a manu- 

 script catalogue. This was compiled from memory, and largely with- 

 out the aid of preserved specimens and therefore contained some er- 

 rors. 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 Compositse. 



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 excellect 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 ob- 

 serving powers. 



The names of Mrs. Professor Brun, Miss I. Howland, Mr. F. L. Kil- 

 borne ; 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 1S76, con- 

 taining 950 flowering plants, and has written out special catalogues of 

 the Compositse, Grarninese 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, pro- 

 vide ng there was auy 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 discover- 

 ies 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 in- 

 dustry of the survey. 



