SUPPLEMENT TO THE FLORA OF MONTANA. 37 



marked difference of character between the species. This taxono- 

 mic-ecological branch of botanical science is destined to yield much 

 of interest in the future and prove of the greatest aid in systematic 

 discrimination, when this critical reconstruction of species becomes 

 of more inportance. 



This is the more necessary, because by far the greater number 

 of species have been described from a few fragmentary specimens, 

 called the "type," which may perchance occur anywhere in the wide 

 gamut of the variation of the species, owing to accident of dis- 

 covery, and very frequently this type and description is thus far 

 removed from the normal type of the species represented by the vast 

 majority of the individuals composing it, while the works on system- 

 atic botany continue to describe this bibliographical "type" long 

 after material has accumulated for more accurate description. The 

 tendency of recent authors to thus fix ^upon a type for their species, 

 when material is at hand from which to draw a wider description, 

 is unfortunate, unless they are sure the type selected fairly repre- 

 sents the normal of the species. 



In the present paper the species I have described as new are suffi- 

 ciently distinct in character to be readily recognized and there ap- 

 pears to be some factor of isolation tending to differentiate them from 

 the nearest related species, while the intergrading forms appear to be 

 relatively few, and I have described as varieties those forms less 

 distinct in character, not having any marked factor of isolation and 

 \vith more numerous forms connecting them with the dominant 

 species. 



I wish here to thank the management of the Gray Herbarium at 

 Cambridge, Mass, for the facilities for comparison and bibliographical 

 reference so kindly placed at my disposal in this work and the many 

 local botanists of Montana, whose contributions have materially aid- 

 ed in elucidating the many knotty questions of specific variation 

 and distribution. It is hoped that these studies may render possible 

 the publication of a practical manual of the botany of the state for 

 the use of the high school student and others interested in our native 

 flora, as the delight of the study of our native plants is greatly marred 

 and the labor vastly increased by the poor facilities for determination 

 13OW at hand. 



