THE FLORA OF NORTH AMERICA. 1 



In the remarks which I have to offer to this Section, you 

 will understand the word " Flora " to be written with a capi- 

 tal initial. I am to speak of the attempts made in mv nun 

 day, and still making, to provide our botanists with a com- 

 pendious systematic account of the phaenogamous vegetation 

 of the whole country which the American Association calls 

 its own. 



I shall make no effort to avoid the personal turn which my 

 narrative is likely to take. In fact, it will be seen that I 

 have partly a personal object in drawing up this statement. 



Only two Floras of North America have ever been pub- 

 lished as completed works, that of Michaux and that of Pursh. 

 A third was begun (by Dr. Torrey, assisted by a young man 

 who is no longer young), by the publication in the summer of 

 1838 of a first fasciculus ; the first volume of 700 pages was 

 issued two years afterward ; and 500 pages of the second vol- 

 ume appeared in 1841 and in the early part of 1843. The 

 time for continuing it in the original form has long ago passed 

 by. Its completion in the form in which I have undertaken 

 it anew is precarious. Precarious in the original sense of the 

 word, for it is certainly to be prayed for: precarious, too. in 

 the current sense of the word as being uncertain : yet not so, 

 according to an accepted definition, namely: "uncertain, be- 

 cause depending upon the will of another; " for it is not our 

 will but our power that is in question; and it is only by the 

 combined powers and efforts of all of us interested in Botany 

 that the desired end can possibly be attained. 



1 A paper read to the Botanists at the meeting of the American As- 

 sociation for the Advancement of Science, at Montreal, August 25, 1882. 

 American Journal of Science and Arts, 3 ser., xxiv. 321. 



