Hi Joint Bulletins 4 and 5 



come to him who searches,'" searches carefully with eyes that see in- 

 telligently the area explored. Each year of my work as botanist 

 at the Fairbanks museum has been rich in discoveries of plants new 

 to Vermont and new stations for many rare species previously re- 

 ported from other sections of the state. 



Owing to a combination of circumstances very favorable for my 

 work, the season of 1917 was the most profitable yet. Because of the ' 

 lateness of the spring the flowers did not blossom plentifully until my 

 lessons with the schools were finished. My collecting trips were 

 planned to cover definite areas, making a canvass of all the plants 

 found growing on each expedition with the view of compiling a flora 

 of St. Johnsbury and vicinity at some future day. W. E. Balch, who 

 commenced a series of photographs of the orchids of Vermont in 191G. 

 was employed at the museum during the past season, and, wishing to 

 revise and complete his series of photographs as far as possible, very 

 ably assisted the general botanical work of the museum while photo- 

 graphing the orchids in their habitats. To his efforts much credit is 

 due for the long list of new stations for Vermont plants that I have 

 to present this year. 



Several species of plants sent me for identification proved to le 

 rare and unusual, one AlchemiUa pratensis, sent in by Miss Mary L. 

 Wheeler of Barton, being new to the state. Galium. Mollugo and Galium 

 verum were sent from Barnet, G. verum coming from the same station 

 from which it was recorded in 1916. Stachys palustris was sent from 

 West Danville and later found growing profusely in a pasture west of 

 the museum. 



My herbarium specimens of many of the rare species which I shall 

 mention are meagre in the extreme as I am fully convinced that unless 

 botanists use more discretion in collecting in the future than they have 

 in the past that all of the rarer species will soon come to exist in 

 herbaria only. Such seems to be the case with Orchis' rotundifoUa in 

 Vermont so far as I can ascertain, by my own efforts or by corre- 

 spondence with other botanists, and this is only one of many rare 

 forms on the verge of extinction if not already gone. 



Instead of drying my rare plants, if I find them growing where 

 there is danger of their being uprooted or destroyed, I carry them 

 home and plant them in a locality as nearly as possible like the one 

 from which they came. In this way I have a fine collection started, 

 that "neither moth nor rust can corrupt'' and I trust that thieves may 

 not pass my trespass signs to steal them. 



