TWENTY-THIRD ANNUAL MEETING. 97 



ness of herbaceous plants, many of the species, in like manner, having 

 immigrated from north and west and south; would note the thousands of 

 lakes and bogs that provide a secure home for numerous water-loving 

 species; and by no means least, he would see how bravely and persistently 

 different sorts of forage plants have clothed our fertile acres and are push- 

 ing on to cover the spots left bare by the lumberman's axe. It would need 

 only such a casual survey of the flora of the state to appreciate the great 

 variety and abundance of the species composing it. 



It is important to learn, if we may, something about its origin and rela- 

 tionship. Where did the sixteen hundred and more flowering plants that 

 are now domiciled within our borders, come from? We know from the rocks 

 beneath our feet that they did not always live here, and we have even seen 

 with our own eyes the invasion of hardy intruders, some of them from 

 beyond the seas, as they have spread through our territory and encroached 

 upon the ground once held by native species. 



Let us proceed by the easiest way, and notice, first, the plants that are 

 known to have come in comparatively recently from foreign countries. 



There are about two hundred of these, a large proportion of them from 

 Europe. They include the weeds of civilization, that one sees everywhere 

 from the seaboard to the Mississippi. They are common enemies, but, 

 like other foreigners, have come to stay. With them are a good many that 

 have escaped from cultivation and are here and there maintaining a pre- 

 carious foothold, or by some favorable combination of circumstances are 

 making a fairly successful fight with the older occupants of the soil. The 

 history of these introduced species, in their wanderings over the earth's 

 surface, dispersed by wind, water, animals, and the hand of man, would 

 fill a volume. Many of them are perfectly at home in every quarter of the 

 globe, cosmopolitan in their habits, and no more of us than is the meek- 

 eyed celestial who does our washing and receives our Christian abuse. 

 . Turning now to the remaining twelve to fourteen hundred species that 

 really belong here, and that we have every reason to believe were growing 

 within the borders of our territory long before the advent of white set- 

 tlers, we find ourselves confronted by no easy task. 



A comparison of our truly indigenous species with those of other parts 

 of the country, followed by a more extended survey of the plants of the 

 globe, leads to a number of important conclusions, two of which require 

 special notice. 



In the first place it is apparent that the indigenous flora of Michigan 

 is so far identical with that of the adjacent states, and in fact with that of 

 a territory extending far to the east, northeast, and southeast, that it is to 

 be studied as a part of this larger flora, rather than as an independent or 

 isolated assemblage of species; and in the second place, it is plain that 

 this larger flora is related in a similar way to one of much wider range, 

 extending far beyond the limits of the continent, but still embracing 

 many of our most familiar species and their immediate relatives. An 

 illustration will serve to make this clear. There is perhaps no more 

 characteristic and better known representative of the Michigan flora than 

 the white pine', Finus Strohus, L., that in years past occupied a broad strip 

 of territory lying to the northward of the 43d parallel, to which it gave 

 the name of the Michigan pine belt. While a most characteristic species, 

 however, its range is far beyond the limits of the state, extending north- 

 ward through Canada and eastward to the gulf of St. Lawrence, southward 

 along the Alleghanies as far as Georgia, and northwestward through Wis- 

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