70 FIELD COLUMBIAN MUSEUM BOTANY, VOL. i. 



outcroppings of shales on the northeastern heights. The special' 

 features of the now very fertile and then quite sterile soils, with the 

 varied differences in altitude, as well as the vast areas of primitive 

 forests, yield a flora of great variety, and often widely differing at 

 points only a few miles apart. 



The amount of exploration necessary under such conditions to 

 gain a full knowledge of the flora, becomes an arduous undertaking, 

 though the interest in searching an almost virgin field is so deep as to 

 greatly lighten the labor. 



BOTANICAL HISTORY. 



The early botanical explorers, Pursh. and Nuttall, found many of 

 their novelties among the eastern mountains of this State, and the old 

 Dutch gardener, Kin, here sought oddities for horticulture, but either 

 on account of their limited knowledge regarding the geography of this 

 section, or from the undeveloped condition of the area they traversed, 

 the localities of their collecting are in most cases but imperfectly de- 

 tailed. Since their time, with the exception of a few transient botan- 

 ists who have incidentally worked over the neighborhood of some 

 vacation resort, the work done on the flora may be summarized as 

 follows : 



In 1867 and 1871, Dr. A. S. Todd, as chairman of a committee of 

 the Medical Society of West Virginia, published a list of the 

 "Medicinal Plants of West Virginia. " This list contains an enumera- 

 tion of nine trees, seven shrubs and sixty herbs. 



In 1870, Mr. DissDebarr, State Commissioner of Immigration, in 

 his "Handbook of West Virginia," compiled a list of the timber trees 

 of the State, in which he enumerated fifty-two species and added 

 twelve species of shrubs. 



In 1876, Professor Fontaine in compiling his portion of the Centen- 

 nial volume upon the " Resources of West Virginia," listed more care- 

 fully the forest trees, shrubs and medicinal plants of the State, draw- 

 ing the last from the publication of Dr. Todd. This work contains an 

 enumeration of sixty-nine trees and sixteen shrubs. 



In 1878, Profs. H. N. Mertz and G. Guttenberg manifolded a 

 check list of the " Flora of West Virginia," being an account of work 

 done along the upper Ohio bottoms, and in the mountains of the 

 northeastern portion of the State, the latter while located at Harper's 

 Ferry. This list enumerates fifty-nine trees, thirty-seven shrubs and 

 four hundred ninety-four herbs. 



In 1888 and 1889, Miss Verona Mapel, Preceptress of the High 

 School at Glenville, Gilmer County, quite thoroughly worked over her 

 immediate vicinity in connection with her school duties. She reports 



