16 Muhlenbergia, Volume 4 
ritory are pitifully few, so far as the public can tell. The prime 
reason for this stagnation is probably owing to the fact that bot- 
anists in the west have looked to and depended too much upon 
the east for the solving of their problems. 
This is a mistake. The man on the cnt is infinitely 
better qualified to do the work than one many miles away who 
is totally unacquainted with the field and the conditions prevail- 
ing there. The fact that there is a great herbarium located at 
such and such a place, filled with specimens, and supplemented 
by a fine library, does not qualify a botanist located there to be 
the arbiter of everything relating to plants the whole country 
over. ‘The man in the field is the one to settle problems. He 
should acquaint himself with the places within the State or 
neighborhood where types were obtained, visit these places, 
siudy the plants in the field, study the original descriptions, and 
the types themselves if he possibly can. In other words, de- 
pend upon himself, and submit problems to others only when he 
has completely exhausted his own resources. We sincerely 
hope that more western botanists may wake up and do some- 
thing. 
Within the past two years two very important local floras 
have been issued, one on the flora of Colorado, the other on that 
of Washington. The latter is more useful, because it gives full 
citations and synonymy. Neither of them contain descriptions 
except of certain new forms, but are provided with excellent 
keys for the identification of the species. A work of this sort 
should be written, and that speedily, for every State west of the 
1ooth meridian. We in this western country cannot afford to 
wait for elaborate descriptive manuals. They will come in due 
time, but in the meanwhile we should have these preliminary 
works containing good keys, place and date of publication of 
species, synonymy, list of type tecalities, and the place berms 
the type is deposited if that place is known. 
