1883-1977
The first edition of “Trees and Shrubs of Nantucket,” by Dr. Mabel A. Rice, appeared in 1946. A continued interest in the subject prompted the Nantucket Maria Mitchell Association to publish a second edition, again done by the same author. Dr. Rice was formerly Assistant Director of the Natural Science Department at MMA and then lived in retirement on Cape Cod. The second edition embodies additions and changes in the original text in a booklet of 54 pages. The first part of the booklet relates to ancient and present history of Nantucket trees, with quotations from 49 literature citations. The author comments that the Island today has a much more sylvan aspect than when Crevecoeur saw it in 17S2 and Thoreau in 1854. Yet “Nantucket is still open moorland with thickets of wood (woods) merely filling the hollows and bordering the roads.”