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 Reservation is about 4,000 
acres, Middlesex Fells Reservation 3,000 acres, Stony 
Brook Reservation 450 acres, Beaver Brook Reservation 
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 afford 
a rich aquatic vegetation. Pogonia verticillata, Nutt., 
Habenaria fimbriata, R. Br., Epigza repens, L. and Kal- 
mia latifolia, L. in the Blue Hills, and Conopholis 
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 Sum Car- 
sonzz, 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 
Reservations. It has, nevertheless, been deemed best to 

