Biological Papers. ■ 273 



CATALOGUE OF THE FLORA OF KANSAS, PART L 



By Bernard B. Smyth, Curator of the State Museum of Natural History, Topeka, assisted by 



LUMINA C. Riddle Smyth, M. S., Ph. D., Topeka. 



(Read by title before the Academy, at Ottawa, Kan., December 31, 1909. ) 



INTRODUCTION. 



^T^HIS catalogue is preliminary to the fulfillment of a complete 

 -*- catalogue of the flora of Kansas, in which it is designed to in- 

 clude every species of plant that grows spontaneously in the state, 

 whether indigenous or naturalized, with some small account of its 

 station, habitat and time of blooming, as well as its place in a sys- 

 tematic list. The lowest subkingdom, embracing all the orders of 

 plant life up to the liverworts, and containing approximately 1400 

 species, is not yet ready for publication, but is reserved for further 

 microscopic study, to be issued later. The catalogue of the higher 

 subkingdoms will be divided into three or more parts, of which 

 one part is here presented. 



An attempt, partially successful, is made in this work to bring 

 botanical classification into harmony with itself and give the vari. 

 ous groups of a rank uniform endings. With that end in view, as 

 far as possible, names of the great primary divisions (subking- 

 doms) end with ata, based upon some characteristic that pervades 

 the group; primary subdivisions (phyla) end with phyta, as usual; 

 the next great subdivisions {suhphyla) end in ones; classes end 

 with the customary inem or ifene; subclasses with florm; orders 

 end with ales, and family names with acec^, all based upon some typ- 

 ical generic name or some characteristic of the group. 



Much study has been made of late years to learn all that may be 

 learned of the microscopic vegetation of the state, which is no un- 

 important consideration and involves no small amount of persistent 

 and well-directed labor. With three or more powerful and well- 

 equipped compound microscopes under our hands and a perfect 

 familiarity with them brought about by years of experience (many 

 when all are added together as students and teachers), it is to be 

 hoped that our labors will produce many useful facts and that our 

 lists when presented will be well worthy of consideration. 



It is due to John H. Schaffner, A. M., M. S., professor of botany 



at the Ohio State University, to say that in the early stages 



of preparation of this catalogue he has had much to do. His 



advice in arrangement, classification and nomenclature has been 



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