Stalter, R. & E.E. Lamont. 2006. The historical and extant flora of Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. Journal of the Torrey Botanical Society 133: 362-374.

Note: Both authors are based in New York—Stalter is with the Department of Biological Sciences, St. John's University, and Lamont is an Honorary Research Associate, Institute of Systematic Botany, The New York Botanical Garden. Only the senior author visited Sable Island (August 2002), “to survey the extant flora and compare it with the historical flora of the past 100 years”. However, since he was only on the island for half a day, and did not travel much beyond the western quarter of the island, this paper presents little useful new information. It is primarily a review of previously published material, albeit with some shortcomings:

• sources not cited for some statements;

• liberal misspelling of names of both people (e.g. in this paper Güssow is also spelled Glissow and Giisso) and entities (e.g. “Mobile oil Ltd”; and Acadian colonists referred to as “Arcadian” etc);

• historical inaccuracies (e.g. that cultivation of crops and animal husbandry by personnel of the Life Saving Stations did not begin until 1813);

• and a few misunderstandings. Among the latter is confusion regarding permits. The authors incorrectly state that “vouchers of vascular plant species were not collected because a collecting permit was denied by the island's manager, Gerry Forbes”. Forbes, an Environment Canada employee, is the Station Manager, and as such does not process permit requests. Permission was actually denied by the Canadian Coast Guard, the responsible authority for Sable Island.