INTRODUCTION
Kewensis, and, in the case of the ferns, to Christensen's Index Filicum. Since Muir's lists did not follow any particular order of classification we have adopted the order of families laid down in the last edition of Gray's Manual of Botany.
Special interest attaches to the fact that Muir found on the Arctic shore of Alaska, near Cape Thompson, a species of Erigeron new to science. It is an asteraceous plant with showy, daisy-like flowers In reporting this find to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Asa Gray described it as "the most interesting and apparently the only new species of an extensive and truly valuable collection made by Mr. Muir in a recent searching cruise which he accompanied, and which extended to Wrangell Island [Wrangell Land]. The plant seems to have been abundant, for it occurs in the collection under three numbers."
Gray promptly named it Erigeron Muirii in honor of its finder, thus redeeming for the second time a promise made ten years earlier when he wrote to Muir, "Pray, find a new genus, or at least a new species, that I may have the satisfaction of embalming your name, not in glacier ice, but in spicy wild perfume."
June, 1917.
