EDITORIAL 
The editor of the bulletin is delighted to be able to publish in this 
edition the portraits of the most distinguished members of the Ver- 
mont Botanical club and the Vermont Bird club. These two men are 
well known to all of our members and their names are familiar to 
men in all parts of the scientific world. 
Dr. Ezra Brainerd 
Dr. Ezra Brainerd is a native of St. Albans, having been born 
December 17, 1844. Since early manhood he has been interested in 
Vermont's botanical problems. He was one of the half dozen botanists 
who met at a lumber camp July 4, 1895, near the summit of Stratton 
mountain to study the "Torrey Meadows" and to form an association 
which finally became the Vermont Botanical club. Dr. Brainerd was 
elected the first president of the club, which office he has held con- 
tinuously for 25 years. During all this time he has been an active 
worker. He has been present at most of the meetings, both summer 
and winter, and the success of the club has been largely due to his 
leadership. During this time he has supervised the compiling and 
printing of two revisions of the Vermont Flora, one in 1900, the other 
in 1915. Dr. Brainerd is today the recognized authority on Vermont 
flora. 
His familiarity with the plants and his keen insight into the char- 
acters which seem to be important in classification have pushed him 
beyond the usual limits of the systematic botanist and we find him a 
pioneer in the analysis of the various forms of plants found in nature. 
He has not been satisfied with a study of herbarium material alone 
but has frequently cultivated in his garden the forms under considera- 
tion. This work has shown that many of our so-called species are 
either hybrids or ecological forms. His work on Viola and Rubus are 
models of the kind of work which the systematic botanist of the future 
should attempt. 
Dr. Brainerd has published many articles in the botanical journals 
of the country and his work has done much to give our bulletin a 
scientific standing. 
Dr. George H. Perkins 
Prof. George Henry Perkins, a native of Massachusetts, was born 
September 25, 1844. He came to Vermont in 1870 and for 50 years he 
