PREFACE. 
The present volume of the Contributions is devoted to a flora of 
New Mexico, by Mr. E. O. Wooton, of the United States Department 
of Agriculture, and Mr. Paul C. Standley, assistant curator, United 
States National Herbarium. Mr. Wooton was connected with the 
New Mexico College of Agriculture for twenty years, during which 
_ time he made extensive botanical collections in nearly all the counties 
of the State. Mr. Standley spent thrée years in botanical work at the 
same institution and has since revisited the State for the purpose of 
further studying its flora. This volume, therefore, is based very 
largely upon the collections made by the two authors, although all 
other available collections from New Mexico have been studied. 
Only the flowering plants and vascular cryptogams of New Mexico 
are contained in the present work. Keys are given for the determina- 
tion of the species as well as of the larger groups, so that the volume 
may be used as a field manual. At the same time the citations will 
enable those who have access to libraries to consult readily the 
original descriptions of the species. 
The number of species treated is approximately 3,000. Notwith- 
standing the large amount of field work already accomplished, many 
remote districts in New Mexico are still imperfectly known botanically, 
so that eventually this number will doubtless be increased by several 
hundred species. The treatise in its present form, however, will be 
found to contain most of the plants growing spontaneously in those 
parts of the State thus far settled or frequently visited. 
This is the fourth volume of the Contributions to be devoted to a 
State flora, the others being the Botany of Western Texas (volume 2), 
the Plant Life of Alabama (volume 6), and the Flora of Washington 
(volume 11). 
FREDERICK V. CovILLE, 
Curator of the United States National Herbarium. 
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