CONTRIBUTIONS TO WESTERN BOTANY NO. IS _ 31 



NELSON'S FLORA OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS 



Since my last Contributions several floras have come out, Nelson's 

 being the first. This is supposed to be a revision of Coulter's flora, poib- 

 lished many years ago, which was the outgrowth of his and Porter's flora 

 of Colorado, Coulter's Flora was simply a compilation, as was his Flora 

 of Colorado. It contained no critical study but was valuable because it 

 gave the locus of publication of various species of the many U. S. R. R. 

 Surveys. Species of Watson, Gray, Torrey, and Engelmann, Then Nelson 

 comes along and with much bluster about the "Rocky Mountain Herbar- 

 ium," a small collection of Wyoming plants made mostly by himself, he 

 attempts to get out a real Flora. The one glaring defect of Nelson is his 

 perpetual blundering, and lack of ecological knowledge. He poses as a 

 conservative, not a splitter like Rydberg and Greene, but in his own 

 Sjpecies he is as bad as any of them. Then a very reprehensible thing is 

 his flatulent praise of ihe men he is afraid to antagonize, and the total 

 lack of any real appreciation of brother botanists. For example he slops 

 over in acknowledgment of obligations to those two men when he does not 

 even mention the one man to whom he was the most obligated for infor- 

 mation and botanical material got in exchange through years of correspond- 

 ence. Possibly there was method in his neglect, for that man was also 

 preparing a similar flora and had been at it many years before Nelson was 

 known in the West at all. Another feature of his work is the many 

 omissions of well known species. At least 50 that grow in the isegion 

 that Nelson knew nothing about Hitherto I have refrained from criti- 

 cism of his work for personal reasons, but of late there has come from 

 the University of Wyoming continued disparaging remarks from his pro- 

 tegees, until forbearance has ceased to be a virtue. For example Mac- 

 Bride, a protegee of Nelson, attempted to do a little work on the borages, 

 and in that work criticised my use of the name Krynitzkia instead of 

 Cryptantha in making certain new names for borages. It ought to be 

 perfectly plain to a novice that I do not use nor intend to use any of 

 the new generic names till I know w hether they are worth recognition, 

 which requires intensive studies which I do not intend to take up except 

 in order. I prefer not to slop over like the Wyoming folks do, and I do 

 not intend to ask anybody's permission when I do it. Nelson, with his 

 poor equipment in material and experience, might attempt it, but I won't 

 do it. Real botanical work is not favored by petty jealousies. I Iwtinc no 

 sympathy with the Brittonian method of finding fault with coworkers in 

 any field. It gets no one anywhere. There is no field anywhere for such 

 men, but small fry are always trying it So far as Nelson's work h 

 concerned he will in due time reach his proper level withcnit my assist- 

 ance. In fact has already done so. But his botanical kids will still 

 think they are grownups. 



