REPORT OF THE FLORA IN THE VICINITY OF THE 

 GULF BIOLOGIC STATION. 



BY R. S. COCKS. 



(Read before the Louisiana Society of Naturalists, December, 1903.) 



This collection of plants is not an exhaustive catalogue of the 

 Flora of the region of the Gulf Biologic Station. It is merely an 

 attempt to supply a tolerably complete list of such plants as could 

 be found in a week's collecting during the month of July, in 

 about a two mile radius of the Station. 



As was to be expected from the character of the soil so near the 

 sea, the number of plants is not very large, but it is worthy of note 

 that of this small collection of under three hundred plants, more 

 than one-third are here recorded for the first time from the State. 

 It seems therefore certain that this is the first time that this part 

 of the State has been visited by anyone interested in the Flora. 



Speaking generally, there are four types of plants found around 

 the station. ( i ) . There are the plants of the drifting sands with- 

 in the tide line. (2). There are the plants of the salt marshes 

 growing in water, or in soil more or less water soaked. (3). 

 There are the plants growing on the ridges of higher ground 

 which traverse the marshes. (4). There are those plants, which 

 have followed in the wake of cultivation, generally described as 

 weeds. 



In addition to the plants listed, there are some forty others 

 which have not been identified, as they were not in condition for 

 satisfactory determination. 



Very little can be said of the Cryptogamous Flora. Two spe- 

 cies of Algae were collected in the salt pools that form on the jet- 

 ties, and seven species of mosses. Fresh water Algae were not 

 represented at all, and the collection and identification of the Fungi 

 was not attempted. 



It is greatly to be hoped that this list may serve as a starting 

 point for further investigation, and that in the near future we may 

 have a complete catalogue of the Flora of this most interesting 

 region. 



