293 



Floras of the United States and British America — A List of the 

 State and LoeaL N. L. Britton. (Reprinted from the An- 

 nals of the New York Academy of Science^ Vol. V), 

 At last students of the geographical distribution of North 

 American plants have a complete index to works of reference on 

 that subject. Considering' that all the ** notes and short lists of 

 observations " have been excluded, one is astonished at the great 

 number of titles that Dr. Britton has accumulated, there being no 

 less than 791, consecutively numbered. The work is the exten- 

 sion and perfection of the series of papers begun in Vol. VIII. of 

 The Bulletin, by Messrs. Gerard and Britton. entitled *' Con- 



_ \ 



tributions towards a List of the State and Local Floras of the 

 United States." The floras are divided into four classes, lettered 

 from A to D, namely, those of lists without exact localities (205), 

 those giving stations (286), those giving stations with notes or 

 occasional descriptions (174), and descriptive lists (91). A few 

 are not classified. The order of arrangement is by countries, 

 States and counties. Aside from the reference value of this list 

 it furnishes in itself some interesting historical facts. 



The six Eastern States furnish 106 ; five Middle States and 

 D. C, 121 ; six Southeastern States, 55 ; seven Southern States, 

 57; eleven of the Western States, including the Indian Territory, 

 191 ; Upper Missouri Region, 12 ; Rocky Mountain Region, 26 ; 

 Great Basin Region, 15; Pacific Coast, 66 ; British America, 

 123. and Transcontinental Surveys, 10. The largest number 

 credited to single States are New York, 65 ; California, 48 ; Mass- 

 achusetts, 45 ; Pennsylvania, 30, and Ohio, 28. 



Apparently the first list published was No. 232, A *' Catalogue 

 of Plants," observed by John Bannister in Virginia, published in 



London in 1668. The next, by Johannes Clayton, relates to the 

 same region and was published in Leyden from 1739 to 1743. 

 But then it is to be remembered that the Virginia of that day in 

 eluded many of our present States. Other old-timers were one In 

 1749-53 by Cadwallader Colden, relating to Orange Co. (N, Y.) 

 plants, one by Rev. M. Cutler, Boston, 1785, referring to plants 

 of the Eastern States; Flora Caroliniana by Thomas Walter in 

 1788, and Muhlenberg's Index to the Flora of Lancaster Co., Pa., 

 published in 1793. Doubtless a critical examination of the 



