4 



Heietof'ore these Contrih((tioni< have embraced only the phanero- 

 gamic Hora, l)ut it is now proposed to extend them ajid include the 

 lower plants as well as the higher. It seemed necessary at the start 

 to concentrate attention upon the more easily observed and readily 

 determined classes, in order that the results of the rather desultory 

 herborizing of so few widely separated collectors might have some 

 measure of completeness. No localities are yet exhausted; but s':^v- 

 eral have been so well searched that resident collectors can now 

 profitably turn their chief attention to the lower plants, as some of 

 them have already begun to do. The interests of the phanerogamic 

 flora are not likely to suffer by this expansion; and while waiting for 

 portions of the state less frequented by botanists to be reported vipon, 

 and for the detection of obscure species at home, it will be profitable 

 to record the observations on lower plants, both as a matter of record, 

 and as a stimulus to increased activity. The next Contribution 

 will accordingly contain a list of the pteridophytes (which include 

 the ferns, horsetails, and club-mosses, although none of the latter 

 have yet been reported from the state), and will be followed in sub- 

 sequent numbers by a list of mosses, various classes of fungi, etc., as 

 the accumulation of material will warrant. It is hoped the first pub- 

 lished list of each class can be made quite full in both the number of 

 species and their distribution. The same rule will be observed re- 

 garding the lower plants that has been adhered to for the higher 



that every name reported shall be accompanied when possible by a 

 specimen, in order to insure uniform accuracy, and to make it possi- 

 ble to revise the list at any future time by an examination of the 

 plants themselves. 



Charles City, Iowa; May, 1882. 



