752 



METASPERMAE OF THE MINNESOTA VALLEY. 



parison of their data throughout, with those in the general 

 tables in the section preceding will serve to bring before the 

 reader many kindred facts not mentioned in detail in these 

 pages. 



v. 



EXAMINATION OF DOMINANT METASPERMIC FAMILIES OF 

 THE MINNESOTA VALLEY. 



Such families as contain a relatively large number of species 

 may be known as the dominant families of the district. Thir- 

 teen such families, each with twenty -two species in the valley, 

 or more than twenty- two, may be recognised. The dominant 

 families furnish 217 genera or 53.5 percent, of all genera in 

 the valley, and 727 species or 61.0 per cent, of the total valley 

 species. In order of their importance they may be arranged 

 as follows: 



Gen. 



Compositae 43.. 



Cyperaceae 11.. 



Gramineae 39.. 



Legutninosae 21.. 



Rosaceae 13 .. 



Spec. 

 ..173 

 ..118 

 ... .89 

 ,...55 

 ....54 



Ranuncuiaceae 11 42 



Liliaceae 15 36 



Scrophulariaceae 13 32 



Orchidaceae 12 30 



Cruciferae 10 30 



Labiatae 14 24 



Poly^ronaceae 2 23 



Umbelliferae 13 22 



Each of these families is represented in the valley by a group 

 of species of a definite distributional and physiognomic charac- 

 ter. To present these characters is the office of the two tabula 

 tions following. In the first, the generic statistics are compiled, 

 in the second, the specific. 



