NOTES AND COMMENT 



With the settlement of the North American continent and the exploi- 

 tation of its resources, such as the drainage of its swamps, the removal 

 of the original forests, and the construction of irrigation works in arid 

 districts, the original condition of the land surface and its vegetation 

 will be changed forever. Civilization in the form of agriculture has 

 played sad havoc with native vegetation, destroying, driving back and 

 exterminating most plants, domesticating few. Fire and lumbermen 

 have destroyed our forest wealth. The building of railroad embank- 

 ments across streams has disturbed the natural drainage and the filling 

 of hollows and valleys with city rubbish has contributed to the same end. 

 Clouds of smoke from locomotives and large manufacturing plants have 

 done much to destroy the native vegetation of our country. Smelter 

 fumes are alsp responsible for much devastation to vegetation at dis- 

 tances as great as forty miles. But why multiply instances which 

 are familiar to everyone who has the best development of our country 

 at heart, for with this devastation in view, it is important for this genera- 

 tion of botanists and scientists to leave in printed form, in photographs, 

 in maps and in other illustrations a record of the original appearance of 

 the country before the march of civilization has entirely destroyed pri- 

 meval conditions. 



In a series of twelve volumes the writer has assembled photographs, 

 prints, book and magazine illustrations, maps, statistical tables, etc., 

 that depict the natural vegetation of North America, the plants growing 

 under wild conditions, the landscape scenery, the geologic formations 

 (incidentally shown) , with the native flora as it existed before the begin- 

 ning of the year 1912. The collection was started about five years ago, 

 and no trouble was spared to get illustrations which show the original 

 North American vegetation. The year 1911 was chosen as the year in 

 which to finish the collection, because it marked the completion of the 

 writer's Phytogeographic Survey of North America. This compendi- 

 ous volume of 790 pages represents the result of twenty years of travel 

 in various parts of North America, and in its writing ten years of liter- 

 ary labor. The printed book, with only 18 plates and 32 figures in 

 the text, with a colored map, 'is supplemented by the twelve volumes of 



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