THE CAYUGA FLORA. v 



using the catalogue. Any one finding plants new to the region or 

 new stations for rare plants, should send us information of the local- 

 ity, accompanied if possible by the specimens, and all such informa- 

 tion will be put on file at the Botanical Laboratory, in the future, as 

 it has been for several years past. It is proposed that whenever such 

 a list accumulates sufficiently to warrant it, to publish a supplement- 

 ary slip containing the additions, with the names of the discoverers, 

 and to send it to any one who may desire it. 



During the collection of materials for the phaenogamic list, a large 

 number of the higher cryptogams have been pressed, and the mate- 

 rial largely worked up ; also a considerable number of parasitic fungi 

 have been saved and much work already done on them, and at no 

 distant day we may hope to place before our students something tangi- 

 ble on several of the more important groups of lower plants. 



The author has recognized more clearly than any one else could, 

 that this work is pioneer work, but resolved that it should be done 

 with a certain degree of thoroughness, believing that it is only by 

 full and accurate records of this kind, made for every section of the 

 countrj-, that we shall ever succeed in demonstrating beyond dispute 

 the great and profoundly interesting problems of geographical distri- 

 bution of species. Nevertheless, he feels that this list is merely a 

 contribution to the better knowledge of our plants ; and it does not for 

 a moment pretend to approach the position of a completed history of 

 their distribution in this region. Although we have explored most of 

 the apparently interesting nooks within the limits, still there are 

 probably others unobserved, as there are also known localities deserv- 

 ing further attention. And when we recognize the fact that after cen- 

 turies of close scrutiny some corner of Great Britain periodicaliy dis- 

 closes a plant never before seen on the island, and that since the pub- 

 lication of the Flora of Washington in 1881, scores of new discover- 

 ies have been made within its limits, we know that many new ones 

 await us here. 



Botanical Laboratory, 



Cornell University, May 20, 1886. 



