1916] 
PALMER—PLANTS OF JASPER COUNTY, MISSOURI 347 
peculiar interest have been submitted to specialists on various 
groups, and local collections are cited in a number of recently 
published books and pamphlets, so that Jasper County can 
no longer be regarded as terra incognita in the botanical 
world. 
It is not claimed, however, that the present catalogue is 
by any means complete or, indeed, anything but a foreword 
on the flora of the region. While every effort has been 
made to secure accuracy and to exclude doubtful and invalid 
species, it is scarcely to be hoped that no errors have crept 
in. In the present state of botanical science it is highly prob- 
able that changes in nomenclature and in the taxonomic inter- 
pretation of certain groups will take place for some years to 
come; and, no doubt, future investigators will take different 
views as to the validity of some species here listed. It is 
very likely, also, that there are a number of plants growing 
in the county that have so far escaped the attention of the 
collector. For obvious reasons the immediate vicinity of the 
writer’s home, in the southwestern part of the county, has 
been most thoroughly explored. Excursions have been made 
as opportunity offered into other sections, and considerable 
collecting has been done in Jasper, Preston, and Sarcoxie 
Townships, but some portions of the county have received 
very little attention, especially the northeastern part, which 
is least accessible at present. 
The flora of a region, moreover, is not a fixed quantity. 
Various causes, at present chiefly cultural, are responsible 
for the introduction of plants from other sections of the 
country and from foreign lands. On the other hand, as 
the land comes more and more under cultivation many of 
the rarer and less hardy species are likely to be exterminated, 
and some, no doubt, have already disappeared since the 
settlement of the country by Europeans. 
The struggle for existence is perhaps as keen in the plant 
world as in any department of nature. Of the countless 
number of seeds and spores produced by some species, but a 
very small per cent find an opportunity to germinate, and 
a large proportion of the young seedlings are crowded or 
