PREFACE. 



The following list has been compiled at the request of 

 the Metropolitan Park Commission in order to put on 

 record the present condition of the vegetation of the new 

 public reservations as a basis for comparison in the future. 

 The acreage of Blue Hills Eeservation is about 4,000 

 acres, Middlesex Fells Eeservation 3,000 acres, Stony 

 Brook Eeservation 450 acres, Beaver Brook Eeservation 

 58 acres. The diversified character of the lands embraced 

 in the reservations gives rise to a most interesting flora. 

 The height of Great Blue Hill is 635 feet, and throughout 

 the reservations hills alternate with valleys and swamps, 

 and clearings with woods, while ponds and brooks aiford 

 a rich aquatic vegetation. Pogonia verticillata, Nutt., 

 Habenaria fimbriates, , E. Br., Epigcea repens, L. and Kal- 

 mia latifolia, L. in the Blue Hills, and Oonopholis 

 Americana, Wallroth, in the Fells, are of the greatest 

 interest, while in Monatiquot Stream which skirts the 

 southern base of the Blue Hills are found the rare Lemna 

 Valdiviana, Philippi, and the polymorphous Sium Car- 

 sonii, Durand. The public should be exhorted, if they 

 come across such plants as these, to preserve them 

 rigidly. The true botanist and lover of nature needs no 

 such exhortation. 



Direct botanical work in the reservations has been 

 systematically prosecuted during the past two years only, 

 and the record of plants is necessarily far from complete. 

 This is especially true of Stony Brook and Beaver Brook 

 Eeservations. It has, nevertheless, been deemed best to 



