THE AMI.RUAX I50TANIST 53 



C(»tt()n-\\(M)<1 l)la/,L' i>ii the creek hanks, sniokv sheen of saj^c 

 and shad-scales on the flats, desert haze in the (h'st'ince hnt 

 desert sunshine all around, the coniini;- winter has no power 

 to chill until the last faint j^dow of this auliunn lire has flick- 

 ered out in late November. 



BOTANY FOR BEGINNERS— VI 



By \Vili.ard N. Clute 



T X t,hat part of America which lies north of the Ohio Riv- 

 -*■ er and east of the Mississippi there are about four thou- 

 sand different kinds of flowering plants and incidentally most 

 of the botanists. Owing to the greatly diversified surface of 

 the region the plant population varies with the locality, each 

 species thriving in the situations best suited to its needs and 

 being rare or absent altogether in less hospitable places. More- 

 over, there are other differences in the flora that may be as- 

 cribed to the effects of migration. Prairie species push in 

 from the west, southern species crowd u[) along the Atlantic 

 coast and plants from the north invade the mountain sum- 

 mits. Why the botanists are most numerous in this region 

 has never been settled, but the fact that they are here most 

 abundant certainly accounts for the fact that a majority of 

 the books on plants issued address themselves to this audience. 

 A few plants are so tolerant of differences in soil and 

 climate that they have a range almost as wide as the region, 

 but with the exception of these the flora of one place is likely 

 to differ considerably from that of another though separated 

 from it by a comparatively short distance. In any locality, 

 however, the botanizer may hope to find at least a thousand 

 different species within a day's ramble of his home, the exact 



