fe 
PREFATORY NOTE, 
ee — 
The purpose of this manual is to bring together and make easily 
accessible our scattered information concerning the flora of western 
Texas. It is one of the richest regions in plant display, containing a 
flora particularly interestin § on account of the interminglin g of Mexican 
species, and very poorly provided with accessible information. It has 
been deemed advisable to publish the manual in parts, in order that 
their successive appearance may call forth additional information that 
can be embodied in a final Supplement. It will be considered a mark 
of appreciation if all omissions or mistakes in species or their range be 
reported to the writer. Such a work is necessarily a compilation, and 
many recorded facts have doubtless escaped notice, while it is to be 
hoped that a vast amount of unrecorded information will thus be 
brought to light. In many cases, on account of meager information, 
the range of a species has been given in a very indefinite and unsatis- 
factory way, and doubtless Species have been admitted that do not 
fairly come within the limits chosen. Itis intended to include all Texan 
plants west of the ninety-seventh meridian. In reporting the geograph- 
ical range of a plant it is very desirable to give some notion of its alti- 
tude and soil distribution as well, stating whether it frequents valleys, 
or plateaus, or mountains, and whether it is a plant that affects a cer. 
tain kind of soil. The desirability of presenting this manual in parts 
has prevented the arrangement of the sequence of orders more in ac- 
cordance with the present knowledge of affinities. No attempt has 
been made to present Synonymy, except when necessary to a clear 
understanding of the species under consideration. It Should be stated 
further that the work has been prepared not only as a convenient ref. 
erence book for botanists, but also as a handbook for Texan students, 
and the latter purpose explains the introduction of analytical keys, 
local names and uses, and simplicity of description, which would not 
have been necessary for the professional botanist, 
JOHN M. CoutrEr. 
STATE UNIVERSITY, 
Bloomington, Ind. 
