Coastal Plants from Cape Cod to Cape Canaveral is dedicated "To
Polly Matzinger, 1915–1995," the long-time editor of Maritimes
and a friend of the author, Irene H. Stuckey. But the honor truly belongs to
Dr. Stuckey, a retired URI plant physiologist, who celebrated the publication
of this beautiful book along with her 90th birthday in April 2001.
It was Maritimes where the Plants Beside
the Sea column began. At first, Dr. Stuckey said with characteristic modesty,
it was used as filler when there wasn't enough copy to complete the magazine.
But her articles were anything but filler. Over the years as she continued to
write clear, informed, and lively descriptions about plants found in coastal
ecosystems, the endpage became the best-read column in the magazine. By the
time she stopped writing for Maritimes, she had the makings of a book,
62 articles accompanied by her own photographs.
When she retired from URI in 1978, she began
to look for a publisher who would carefully and faithfully reproduce her photos.
GSO Dean Margaret Leinen arranged funding through the URI Foundation and Dr.
Stuckey teamed up with coauthor, Lisa Lofland Gould, executive director of the
Rhode Island Natural History Survey, to rework the original articles and write
more than 60 additional plant descriptions. The beautiful volume was published
by University of North Carolina Press late last year and is a remarkable tribute
to a woman whose life is synonymous with her work.
Jackleen de La Harpe
Editor, Maritimes