ECOLOGICAL PLANT GEOGRAPHY OF KANSAS.* 



A. S. Hitchcock. 



The present paper is but a preliminary study of our plant 

 geography. An attempt is made to outline the classes of 

 plant communities found within our borders, but a presenta- 

 tion of the adaptation peculiar to the several classes has been 

 reserved for a future paper. 



The nomenclature is that of Gray's Manual, sixth edition. 

 In giving representative lists the rare and local species have 

 been omitted. Only vascular plants are considered. 



The eastern fourth of the State is carboniferous, mainly 

 Upper Coal Measures extending west to Cowley, Chase and 

 Riley Counties. West of this is a rather narrow Permian 

 belt, fifty miles in width, more or less. West of this and 

 along the southern border only are the Red-beds, extending 

 from Sedgwick to Clark County. Two narrow areas, first 

 Dakota and then Benton, occupy the north central portion of 

 the State from Republic, to Rice and Hodgeman Counties. 

 The western portion of the State is Tertiary, occupying 

 something less than half the area of the State. There are 

 smaller areas of some other formations, such as Niobrara 

 and Comanche. 



The State is 400 miles in length east and west, by 200 miles 

 in width, north and south. The altitude varies from about 

 750 feet at the east (in the valleys) to nearly 4,000 feet on 

 the high plains at the west. 



The western portion of the State is occupied by the Great 

 Plains. This region extends eastward approximately as far as 

 the western limit of the Permian. The Great Plains is a tree- 

 less grassy area, nearly level except as broken by the deep 

 valleys. These valleys cut through the underlying strata, giv- 



* Presented to The Academy of Science of St. Louis, February 7, 1898. 



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