INTRODUCTION. 
In December, 1886, the writer, in answer to the request of the 
Commissioners of the State Reservation at Niagara, promised to 
prepare for their use a catalogue of the plants growing upon the 
reservation and its vicinity. He had already on hand the record 
of his observations made in the neighborhood of the Falls, during 
a period of more than twenty years. But he well knew that in 
order to give to the promised catalogue, such a degree of accuracy 
and completeness as would make it of value to botanists and the 
public, it would be necessary to revise and renew his observations 
in the field. - To this task, he devoted such leisure as was at his 
command during the year 1887. The results are presented in this 
Catalogue. Still he does not doubt that further investigations, 
made in the vicinity of the Falls, will considerably increase the 
number of species here recorded. In the more difficult genera of 
the Cyperacee and Gramine, demanding always in a large degree 
the skill of the specialist, there must be omissions, more or less 
humerous and important. Yet it is probable that no species, 
really characteristic of the flora of Niagara, has been overlooked. 
To aid him in making the list complete, the writer has regarded 
it as his duty to consult, so far as was within his power, the observa- 
tions made in the neighborhood of the Falls, by all other botanists. 
Tt is, however, a matter for great regret that references to the 
botany of the Falls, especially in the reports of the earlier 
explorers, have proved so few in number. It seems probable that, 
Prrer Karn, the friend and correspondent of the great Linn, 
left some record of the botanical observations, which he made 
during his visit at Niagara, in the year 1750. But, the author has 
failed to find any mention of its publication, either in the Swedish 
tongue or in an English translation. If his journal still exists, its 
publication, at the present day, could not but be welcomed as an 
important contribution to the literature of American botany. It 
seems not unlikely that the species of Hypericum and Lobelia, 
which bear his name, were discovered by him near Table Rock. 
