17 



makes the number to be issued very limited. The first two fascicles of 

 Parasitic Fungi (100 species) are nearly ready for distribution. If the 

 matter receives sufficient encouragement, succeeding fascicles will illustrate 

 the Musci, Hepaticai', Hymen'omycetes, Pyrenomycetes and Lichenes, 

 respectively. 



Turning now to the higher plants, we find them, of course, better known 

 but their local distribution is a matter of great interest and one on which 

 little definite information is at hand. In the only published state flora* 

 1,475 species are recorded. Many additions have been made to this list by 

 more or less reliable collectors, and the thorough examination of the 

 unexplored portions of the state will doubtless reveal many others. The 

 accompanying map will show how much of Indiana is yet a terra incognita 

 botanically.t As an illustration of how common plants may be passed by, I 

 will cite the case of the common cockle-bur. In the state flora Xanthium 

 strumarium and A', spinosum are recorded. Growing with the former in 

 Putnam county though less common is the allied A'. Canadense and we have 

 also found it in the vicinity of Orawfordsville. The two, quite similar in 

 appearance, though common weeds, have evidently been confused together 

 though both are doubtless more or less widely distributed, especially in 

 the northern portions of the state. 



The revision of the higher flora we have placed in the hands of Professor 

 Stanley Coulter to whom all material will hereafter be referred. Professor 

 Coulter has at our request prepared a paper on the present status^ of the 

 Phaneroganic Flora of the state. It is desired in this connection ( 1 ) To 

 ascertain what plants have been added to the flora since the catalogue 

 was published, by securing either from those who originally reported them 

 or otherwise a set' or sets of these plants that may be placed in some her- 

 baria for future reference. A list of these will be published later but it is 

 the intention of the survey to admit no empty names to the list ; until the 

 plants themselves accompany the name as a voucher, they will be rigor- 

 ously excluded. (2) To verify the plants of the catalogue itself either by 

 material now in some existing collection or by the collection of new mate- 

 rial in the original or other localities. It is thus intended to have some- 



■^•Cataloeue of the Pha-nogamous and Vascular Cryptogamous Plants of Indiana. By 

 editors of the Botanical Gazette and Prof. Charles R. Barnes, Crawfordsville. Indiana, 

 1881. Supplement I. April, 1882. 



tThe map presented with this report is not reproduced here. It showed that less 

 than one-third of the counties had been entered by a field botanist, and that not over a 

 dozen could he said to have been botanically explored. 



2 



