1891.] ESSAYS. 101 



world-wide distribution, genera related to tropical and polar 

 kindred. One never realizes how varied and abundant it is 

 until some special opportunity or interest leads him to investigate 

 carefully. 



The native flora is that which is associated with most of our 

 recollections of nature. Fields of buttercups and daisies belong 

 to memories of spring always, wild roses and wild berries to 

 the summer, asters and golden-rods to the autumn. These are 

 a perennial delight. They have been from of old ; they are 

 ever new. 



From the sixteenth edition of Tracy's Manual, which covers 

 the territory reaching southward to the 37th parallel and west- 

 ward to the 100th meridian, we learn that the number of native 

 genera of flowering plants is 761 ; of introduced genera, 128 ; 

 of native species, 2651 ; of introduced species, 404. In addi- 

 tion to these there are 29 genera and 102 species of vascular 

 cryptograms, represented mainly by ferns. Of this number it 

 is safe to say that 400 genera and 1000 species may be found 

 within a radius of a dozen miles from this city. 



Some of our most common wild flowers have been introduced 

 from Europe. Most of them, however, have kindred among the 

 native genera and have here found a congenial soil. After the 

 Old World competitions and survival of the fittest, they find 

 themselves well adapted to hustle the more tender and less 

 aggressive natives aside. They crowd into the domain of culti- 

 vation, and hence mostly take rank among the weeds. They 

 belong largely to a few orders, — the cruciferee, leguminoste, com- 

 positse, umbelliferee, the labiatse and the grasses. They often 

 preempt the roadside and take possession of the abandoned or 

 neglected garden. The bulbous and the tall buttercup are the 

 two varieties with which most persons are alone familiar. The 

 native species, less numerous in individuals and more retiring in 

 habit, are mostly overlooked. The barberry is really a beautiful 

 shrub, both in flower and fruit. 



The first signs of returning spring are given us by the blossom- 

 ing of the alders and the willows. The catkins of the alders 

 have been hanging nearly full formed all through the previous 

 summer and autumn and winter, ready to open when the first 



