33 



ESTERN 



Coulter published what he called the flora of the Rocky Mountains. 



He did not know much about the ecological limits of the region. His was 

 in fact, a^ flora of Colorado with northwestern extnesion, exclusive of 

 southwestern Colorado, a.bout which he knew nothing. Nelson followed 

 hint in this interpreta:tibn. Ecologically the Rocky Mountains flora 

 extends to and not through the Clover mountains of Nevada, thence south- 

 eastward ^through Utah to the Grand Canon in the mountains and north- 

 e^tstward'to the base of the Uinta mountains along the plateaus, and 

 thence southeastward through Colorado to central New Mexico. Rydberg 

 m his last emission covers thfs area and more. The main aim of both 

 m'en' seenrs to be to skim the cream of the prospective buyers of botanical 

 Rduks, rather thaii to follow any ecological lines. 



If would consume entirely too much valuable time to go over Nel- 

 I0n*s book in full, so I will take up a family to show how his treataient 

 works out/ The Cruciferae, Stanleya pinnata he splits into three spurious 

 fpecies. He keeps tip the Greeneian bunk of Schoenocrambe which is an 

 Krysimumr He does not know the dL.erence between Thelypodium and 

 ??nrptanthus, the last two of his species of Streptanthus are Thelypodia. 

 He recognizes twice as many species of Lepidium as exist. He does not 

 even seem to know of the existence of my L. scopulorum, one of the very 

 f^T ^^lid species. Thalspi al;p€9tre he splits into four species. He does 

 the same wth Cardamine cordifolia and Physaria. He follows Greene 

 and* Rydberg in splitting Capsella in two, not knowing that Hutchinsia 

 procurn1>ens often shows the real Capsella pods as sports of the usual 

 form. In Camelina he does not know of the existence of C. microcarpa. 

 In Draba he trots along behind Greene. He makes a blunder in quoting 

 Greene^ IJ. Mogollonica by calling it mongollonica. On page 223 he 

 quotes Greene's Draba grarafnea as a possible synonym of D. chrysantha, 

 wKen in fact it is not a Draba at all, but a Braya. He goes o« on the 

 frst year blooming perennials as though they were annuals, as do both 

 Greene and ^Rydberg, In Sophia he also follows Greene in S;plitting. In 

 Aral:)is he gets tangled up in the Botanical woods. He puts Greene's 

 /C. formosa far away from A. Selbyi Rydberg and does not even mention 

 my A': pulchra of which these are synonyms. Nor does he ever seem to 

 Frave observed the peculiar pod character of this species. He keeps up 

 rhe ■ old distinctions on which Gray based Erysimum, when any tyro 

 ?liould see that E. cheiranthoides and asperum cannot be congeneric. On 

 P'xciG 228, in describing A, apnea, he says the stems are 1.5-2 cm. long 

 Instead' of 'dm. long. He does not even mention Parrya macrocarpa, 

 which is common in the Uinta mountains. This lack of exact knowledge 

 is characterise, of the entire tfook, and vitiates its worth decidedly. 



