BOTANICAL EVALUATION OF THE GOAT ISLAND COMPLEX, NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK
P. M. Eckel
Buffalo Museum of Science
1020 Humboldt Pkwy
Buffalo, NY 14211 U.S.A.
www.buffalomuseumofscience.org

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BOTANISTS ON GOAT ISLAND
There were many collectors in and around Goat Island and Niagara Falls in general, many of national significance in one way or another. The curious element of the history of collecting in the latter half of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, that is, during the Victorian period in North America, is the degree of interest in the less conspicuous groups of organisms, of mosses, liverworts, algae, fungi, and of molluscs: fresh water or terrestrial snails. Such interest since has seldom strayed from what we call the flowering plants - the most conspicuous of organisms. The clue to this interest may lie in the continuous references of the period to these organisms as "humble" or "lowly forms of life." Given that nature revealed moral direction, that "in all that is grand and sublime in the works of nature, there resides a power to educate and refine which is of inestimable worth" (1 Ann Rep Comm, 1885), a moral lesson in humility, in the glorification of simple things from which nature or divinity does not withhold its logic and pattern, probably resided in such activities. It is to beliefs like these that we owe the great flowering of interest in the natural world of the nineteenth century, with its remarkable achievements in the sciences. Today, research into the simplest ("most primitive") organisms provides the basis for some of the Nobel-prize winning achievements in biology of the twentieth century. Natural processes, such as photosynthesis and genetics, seem to reveal themselves most easily in the structurally simplest forms of life.

HISTORY OF COLLECTORS AT NIAGARA
During the great period of botanical exploration of the North American continent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, quite a number of botanists visited the unique natural phenomenon of Niagara Falls, and explored the general vicinity. Many collected and made various notes, some of the more important of which are collected here. Botanical and other references to the natural history of Goat Island before construction of the first bridge there in 1817 were made from observations on the mainland. No herbarium specimens were collected on the Islands before that date; any Niagara area specimens were from the mainland on both sides of the river.

Doubtless specimens exist from the area in some form or other in botanical collections all round the world. Some of the most famous natural historians have traversed the area, and still do, though none have stayed to make a systematic study. Some of the more notable collectors of the flowering plants are listed below, collectors of cryptogamous plants, such as mosses, lichens, etc., under separate chapters.

Niagara attracted botanists, such as Peter Kalm, the distinguished student of Carolus Linnaeus, "the eminent Swedish naturalist and leading botanist of his time (1707-1778), [who] conceived the project that brought the first trained botanist into the Niagara region." Kalm visited Niagara Falls, which he beheld August 13, 1750 and with which he was suitably impressed. Kalm apparently left no record of botanical activity at the Falls - which is not to say he made no collections. Day (1888) speculated he collected what came to be known as Kalm's Lobelia (Lobelia kalmii) and Kalm's St.John's Wort (Hypericum kalmianum) near Table Rock (Ontario), both species described by Linnaeus and named after their collector, although on what basis Day made such claims is unclear. Both species enjoy the rocky shores and rivers of the Great Lakes region, both have been reported from the vicinity of Table Rock by later collectors and could have been found on the Three Sisters Islands, New York - Kalm's Lobelia even today. Both plants also bloom in August, both, the one with bright blue flowers, the other with yellow, could have conceivably been conspicuous to the roving botanist. Kalm's report of his experiences at Niagara Falls has one botanical reference (tall trees on Goat Island), nor is there any indication he visited Goat Island - there being no bridge there at the time.

Thomas Nuttall (1786-1859) author of the two-volume Genera of the North American Plants, 1818, visited and collected at Niagara Falls, but before construction of the bridge to Goat Island.

Francois Andre Michaux (1770-1855) undertook to describe the forest trees of [eastern] North America, a task begun by his father Andre Michaux, and whose efforts gave a valuable introduction to the nature of the resources of the northern countries developing on that continent. That he visited Niagara Falls is attested to by his published observations of the American Arbor Vitae or Northern White Cedar (Thuja occidentalis): "Goat Island, round which the Niagara divides itself to form the stupendous cataract which is one of the most wonderful spectacles of nature, is seen from the banks of the river to be bordered with Arbor Vitae" (Michaux, 1841, Vol.II); and of the Cucumber Tree (Magnolia acuminata): "The most northern point at which I have myself observed the Cucumber tree is on the Niagara River, near the celebrated cataract of that name, in latitude 43 degrees; and I believe it does not exist far beyond this limit" (Michaux, 1841, Vol.1). These observations give valuable insight into floristic changes through time, as Arbor Vitae has all but disappeared on Goat Island, and no spontaneous Cucumber trees are presently to be found in the vicinity of the Falls and its gorge.

In 1823 the Scottish botanist David Douglas (1798-1834) visited the United States in order to collect native plants for the Royal Horticultural Society (Zenkert, 1934). Sir William J. Hooker of the Botanical Garden in Glasgow referred, in his Flora Boreali-Americana (1840), to four species Douglas collected near the Falls: Polygala incarnata, Silene stellata, Desmodium bracteosum and Sedum ternatum, (Zenkert, 1923). None of these species have since been observed at the Falls, if they had ever occurred there, yet chroniclers of the Niagara Flora, including the present one, dutifully record his observations. Douglas' specimens are housed at the British Museum and at Cambridge University.

By the Niagara River above the Falls Douglas found the soil was "rich, of black and brown loam," where there was Ulmus americanum "in many places ... scarce" and species of Crataegus. On September 30, he found Astragalus canadensis or A. neglectus, Juniperus virginiana, Carya cordiformis, species of Oak and Violet "at Niagara Falls." Douglas noted plants in his diary observed on Goat Island (see section on Douglas' diary below), and in the Whirlpool area, although in which country is ambiguous. At the Whirlpool he noted an Asplenium species, probably A. trichomanes which is abundant on the rocks there, Polypodium vulgare, also enjoying the boulder-tops, and an Oak "on rocks ... narrow serrated leaves, acorns small & olive shaped" (probably Quercus prinus or Q. prinoides).

In 1862 Leon Provancher (referred to as Abbe by Day) published his Flore Canadienne in two volumes. Provancher, presumably based on his own experiences and collections, reported Hypericum kalmianum on "Rochers au bas de la chute de Niagara," Vitis labrusca in the vicinity of the Falls, and Plantago media, which has not been detected since, Quercus stellata, Quercus macrocarpa, Carex oerderi, "near the Horse-shoe Fall" (all citations from Day, 1888). Hs reports refer to plants found on the Canadian side.

Louis Agassiz (1807-1873), more of a naturalist than a botanist, was a leading European scholar in the fields of ichthyology, geology and paleontology before coming to Harvard in 1847, visited Goat Island and Niagara Falls in company with a group of fifteen scholars and students from several academic institutions, including Harvard University, on their way to explore the wilds of Lake Superior. This journey lead to his 1850 publication on the natural history of that lake region. At meals, during this expedition, Professor Agassiz would show his comrades prepared diagrams and lectures on the observations he had made on the natural environment through which they passed - comparing it with his experience in Europe, and giving us much that is interesting and useful regarding the natural, including botanical, character of Goat Island before it became State property.

The British phytogeographer and son of William J. Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911) of Kew Gardens also took an opportunity to visit Niagara Falls. In the company and with the assistance of Dr. Asa Gray, the distinguished American botanist of Harvard University, he identified 50 species of trees and shrubs on Goat Island in 1877, later using this island flora as an example of the species richness of the North American flora in a speech before the Royal Institute of Great Britain, (Turrill 1953). Hooker's authority in plant biogeography, for which he was internationally recognized after investigating the floras of the far-flung colonies of the British Empire of his day, lent weight to his testimonial as to the scientific value of the Goat Island flora. "Sir Joseph Hooker, the noted English Botanist, has said that he found on Goat Island a greater variety of vegetation within a given space than he had found elsewhere in Europe or east of the Sierras in America, and Dr. Asa Gray, the greatest of American Botanists, confirms that statement" (Porter, 1900). This particular generality was to be used by advocates for the establishment of the Niagara Reservation; see section on Hooker).

Asa Gray (1810-1888) visited Niagara Falls in 1831 as a young man after graduating from Fairfield Medical School in that year (Rodgers, 1942), and teaching courses at Hamilton College. "With his earnings ... he financed his botanical explorations of the vicinity of Niagara Falls and elsewhere in New York ..." (Humphrey, 1961). Specimens he collected that year were sent to the American botanist John Torrey, with whom Gray was just beginning to correspond. Gray later went on to found the botany department at Harvard. Gray was to develop a close collaboration with Sir Joseph Hooker and make important contributions to the plant-geography of the North American continent. It was while returning from an exploration of the western states that both botanists visited Goat Island in 1877.

Although Gray's collecting labels were generally spare of data (Dr. E. Shaw, personal communication), a habit he passed on to Judge George W. Clinton of Buffalo, New York at the beginning of Clinton's botanical career, it is possible that a search of the Gray Herbarium at Harvard will reveal more collections from Goat Island. A Goat Island specimen of Gray's is reported to be in the New York State Herbarium, without date (Hypericum kalmianum, Zenkert, 1934. Note also a specimen of Lysimachia quadriflora reported by House, 1924). Beck (1833) made reference to Gray's activities in western New York (v. Hypericum cistifolium p. 61). The bridges to the islands were in place throughout Gray's botanical career.

The cataracts of Niagara and its associated gorge contributed much to the development of the natural sciences within the towns and villages of western New York, in botany as well as geology, malacology and ornithology. The unusual natural phenomenon of Niagara Falls attracted many local residents to examine its unique character in finer detail.

Botanical specimens (Equisetum variegatum, Populus balsamifera) collected at Niagara by Dr. John A. Kinnicutt (1828), a native and physician of the then village of Buffalo, New York, appeared in John Torrey's 1843 publication on the flora of New York State. Other botanists who contributed Niagara specimens cited by Torrey were a Mr. Cooper, Dr. Casper, Wister Eddy of New York City, Dr. Knieskern, Mr. Macrae, Dr. H. P. Sartwell, Mr. D. Thomas and Mr. Charles Whitlow. Dr. Sartwell (1792-1867) resided at Penn Yan, New York, west of the Finger Lakes region, and corresponded with George W. Clinton, mentioned above. Sartwell's herbarium is presently at the New York Botanical Garden.

George William Clinton (1807-1885), future judge, mayor of Buffalo, first president of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, and son of the Governor of New York State, DeWitt Clinton, visited the Falls in 1826 as a young man of 18 years in the company of scholars who were quite distinguished in their time, or would become so: Prof. Amos Eaton, geologist-naturalist, Dr. James Eights, scientific draftsman, young Asa Fitch, future entomologist, and Dr. Lewis Caleb Beck, among others. This was the Canal Trip: a 700-mile round-trip journey made by scholars by barge from Albany to Buffalo along the Erie Canal (see Barnes, 1988, for details regarding this trip, although he refers erroneously to a George Washington Clinton, son of the governor). This voyage is strongly suggestive of the journey in the not too distant future of Louis Agassiz and his students on their way to Lake Superior, and other scholarly travels. The members of Clinton's Canal Trip journey visited Goat Island (Clinton, unpublished diary). It was probably on this trip that Beck found the Niagara Thyme (Satureja glabella var. angustifolia he reported from limestone rocks at Niagara Falls (Beck, 1833). Eaton was the well-known and influential author of an early text in botany, and Beck was to write the Botany of the Northern and Middle States in 1833. This group of scholars visited Goat Island before the island became a New York State property in 1885. Clinton made a few notes in his diary on characteristics of its vegetation, recording the occurrence of Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) there, populations still to be seen (Clinton, 1826). When later his career took him to Buffalo, he continued his avid botanical activities, collecting plants in western New York and producing the first checklist of vascular plants for that area (Clinton, 1863). Singular reports of species in the Niagara area occurring at the Falls were noted in that publication. The Clinton Herbarium of the Buffalo Museum of Science, the herbarium of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences which he helped found in 1861, is the repository of these early specimens. "... No one knew better than he all the herbal and sylvan treasures of Niagara's banks" (Severance, 1911, cited by Zenkert, 1934).

While a member of the New York State Board of Regents from 1852 to 1883, Clinton was "instrumental in establishing botany as a permanent concern of State government" and was responsible for making the position of the State Botanist of New York a permanent one (Mitchell, 1986). Although Clinton's major achievement was as a botanical collector, he labored hard to bring the botanical richness of western New York State to the attention of the nation's leading botanists in diverse fields, in bryology (Leo Lesquereux), in mycology (Charles Peck) and in vascular plants (Asa Gray). The unpublished collecting journal he maintained from 1862 to 1878, in the research library of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, is a mine of natural history information (see transcriptions in this report).

David F. Day, a Buffalo lawyer, worked with Clinton in expanding botanical exploration in western New York and southern Ontario. After Clinton had moved to Albany in 1882, Day produced an updated version of Clinton's earlier list of plants, including numerous citations of those found at Niagara Falls (Day, 1882). In 1885, Goat Island and other islands at the brink of the Falls together with a corresponding stretch of river bank was removed from private ownership and transferred to New York State property, forming a Niagara Reservation or nature preserve. The Commissioners of this new State Park requested Day to produce an inventory of the plants growing in the vicinity of the Cataracts and Gorge. In pursuit of this goal, Day visited habitats of species richness, such as Goat Island, "wet areas above Clifton"), and quiet inlets along the upper Niagara River just above the Falls. He investigated vegetation along the crests of the Niagara gorge from the Falls to Lewiston-Queenston and produced a list published for the State of New York in 1888 (see section on Day).

Perhaps stimulated by the success of efforts to establish an internationally renowned and precedential State Park for the preservation and enjoyment of Niagara's natural resources, and a public park on the Canadian properties adjacent to the Falls and Gorge, coupled with the interest of both administrations in the floristic treasures of these newly protected lands, there was a certain flowering of botanical energies in Niagara county in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Mr. A. D. Pease of Wilson engaged in a flora of Niagara County in the eighties, and Miss Marion Jessup Wright, and Mr. E. C. Townsend, both of Lockport, in the nineties. All three individuals spent time collecting in areas explored earlier by Day such as DeVeaux College woods, Goat Island, and Niagara Glen (Ontario), or Foster's Flats as it was then known. Their specimens eventually made their way into the collections of the Buffalo Museum of Science.

Mr. Frank W. Johnson, who moved from Chicago to Buffalo around 1915 (Zenkert, 1934), began to direct the Botanical Section of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. One objective of the Section was to revise Day's 1882 publication of the plants growing in the vicinity of Buffalo, and his Catalogue of the Niagara Flora (1888). It is owing to the latter effort that so many voucher specimens exist for plants of the Niagara Falls area made by Mr. Johnson and his associates. When Mr. Johnson left Buffalo in 1928 he sent his herbarium to the New York State herbarium in Albany (NY) "for storage" in addition to providing data to Dr. H. House, then State Botanist and engaged in revising a flora of New York State (Zenkert, 1934). More specimens from Goat Island and Niagara Falls may be sought there.

Mr. Charles A. Zenkert, research associate in Botany in the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, carried through on Mr. Johnson's direction, summarizing floristic data that had been accumulating since Day's 1882 and 1888 Catalogues, revising the nomenclature, revisiting old botanical haunts, exploring new ones, analyzing and interpreting the data already housed in the Clinton Herbarium of the Buffalo Museum of Science (BUF). The product of this activity was his 1934 Flora of the Niagara Frontier Region. Citations for species of Goat Island and the areas adjacent to the Falls and its Gorge confirm the earlier and then current existence of certain taxa.