MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 123 
Appalachian system and that of the Atlantic and Gulf 
coastal plain; and while its western geographical limits over- 
lap a portion of the Southwest, yet the latter region is, to a 
large extent, extra-limital to Dr. Small’s Flora. Hence this 
intermediate region, or that part of the Southwest included 
between the northern boundary of Missouri and Kansas on 
the north, the Mississippi River on the east, the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Rio Grande on the south, and in general 
the western boundary of Kansas, Oklahoma, northern Texas 
and the Pecos River on the west is greatly in need of a con- 
cise, convenient and authoritative manual. 
The Bieponce of such a work naturally necessitates a 
thorough botanical survey of the plants in the field, and a 
detailed study of all available material in herbaria. The 
undertaking, however, is of such magnitude and scientific 
importance that it can only be prosecuted satisfactorily by 
an established institution like the Missouri Botanical Garden. 
The collections of both dried and living plants in the 
Garden, since the early days of the institution, have been 
built up very largely of material from the southwestern part 
of the United States. The private herbarium of Dr. George 
Engelmann, consisting of over 90,000 specimens and acquired 
by the Garden about a quarter of a century ago, contained a 
very large proportion of Southwestern plants, To these have 
been added the private herbaria of several prominent botan- 
ists whose collections have been brought together from Mis- 
souri, Arkansas, Louisiana and other parts of the lower 
Mississippi Valley, thus giving a splendid representation of 
the native plants of this rather homogeneous floral region. 
In fact the Missouri Botanical Garden, more than any other 
establishment in the country, has been for many years the 
’ natural depository for plants secured on practically every 
expedition to the Southwest. 5: 
While the Garden herbarium is already unexcelled in its 
representation of the Southwestern flora, yet it is the duty 
of the institution to make its collections even more com- 
plete by exploring as thoroughly as possible certain portions 
of the south central states, particularly those parts which 
have been comparatively little worked botanically and whose 
flora is, consequently, least represented in the Garden her- 
barium, and finally to corellate the results of the survey in 
a manner that will render the information obtained available 
to the people of our region and to the scientific public in 
eneral. 
: By the sanction of the Board of Trustees, Mr. Ernest J. 
Palmer, an experienced collector, has been placed in the 
field and has already made substantial progress in the 
