EDWARD PALMER 347 



dently expected that this collection, now probably the third in point of 

 size, will eventually exceed all others in the amount and value of its 

 materials for illustrating North American botany/' 3 



In the same report was published a paper on the " Food Products 

 of the North American Indians/' based upon Dr. Palmer's field notes 

 and observations. 



During the next two years Dr. Palmer was engaged in making col- 

 lections of marine invertebrates and algse on the New England coast, 

 and in going over his material at the Museum of Comparative Zoology 

 at Cambridge. 



From Cambridge, at the suggestion of Professor Gray, Dr. Palmer 

 made a trip to Florida and the Bahama Islands. A list of the algas 

 collected by him at this time was published by Professor Daniel Cady 

 Eaton, of Yale, but no list of the flowering plants was published. One 

 of the most interesting plants found by him in Florida was a yellow 

 waterlily, Nymphcea flava, which had been figured many years before 

 by Audubon, but which had remained unknown except through Audu- 

 bon's figure until its rediscovery by Palmer. In Audubon's figure the 

 leaves of a Nuphar instead of those of a Nymplicea had been depicted, 

 and Dr. Palmer's specimens were the first to establish the true nature 

 of the plant. 4 



In 1875 Dr. Palmer visited Guadalupe, an island lying some dis- 

 tance off the coast of Lower California, which had never before been 

 visited by a botanist. His collections on this island revealed a fauna 

 and flora of peculiar interest, connecting it rather with upper Cali- 

 fornia than with the adjacent peninsula. Every bird in his collection 

 except a single sea bird proved to be new to science, though represented 

 by allied forms on the mainland; and among the plants there were 

 twenty-one new species, the greater part of which proved to be peculiar 

 to the island. The account of Dr. Palmer's personal experiences on 

 the island is most interesting, but unfortunately there is not space here 

 to repeat it. 



While on the island he lived in a dug-out with a roof of poles cov- 

 ered with dirt. His explorations were attended with much difficulty 

 and for several weeks he was seriously ill. Sometimes in order to 

 secure plants growing on the faces of cliffs, which had been preserved 

 on account of their inaccessible position from the greed of goats, he 

 made use of a noose at the end of a long pole, much to the amusement 

 of the herders, who laughed at the doctor's attempts to " lasoo plants." 

 Many of the species could have been secured in no other way. " Goats," 

 he says, " were my only rivals ; but they made a clean sweep of every- 

 thing in reach, not discriminating between what was common and 

 what was rare." 



3 Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 1870, pp. 11, 12, 1871. 



4 See Am. Journ. Science, No. 65, 416, 1876. 



