The, Flora of the Rock if Mountains. 105 



Selkirks, tliose regions were a luiid of enchantment to 

 men of science, who, in spite of tlie ditHculties encountered 

 in reaching it, attained the object of their desire and have 

 recorded tlie delight they experienced when they at last 

 set foot upon it. It was a serious holiday to make out 

 the distant prairies and western mountains in the days 

 when David Douglas, Thomas Nuttall, liobert JJrown, 

 Sir John llichardson and Thomas Drummond visited 

 them. Only fifty years ago it took the late I'rofessor 

 Agassiz several weeks to travel from l^oston to the 

 shores of Lake Superior and back again, when, in pursuit 

 of knowledge, he mode a summer excursion to that then 

 little known region, scientifically considered. 



There are many species met with in Manitoba, the 

 Territories and the valleys of the mountains that are 

 common to the east, and of these no account is taken in 

 the subjoined list. Bat there is a tendency to specific 

 differences in the genera which l)ecomes gradually 

 apparent as one travels westward. Tiiis is especially true 

 of the fiora of the plains. As to the plant life of the 

 Eocky Mountains, it closely resembles that of other 

 mountains of similar height, where corresponding climatic 

 conditions obtain. 



As we travel westward over the Territories, unfamiliar 

 species multiply with bewildering rapidity, so that it 

 tasks one's resources to cure properly at night the speci- 

 mens collected in the day time. But such embarassment 

 is delighful to one bent on making new acquisitions. His 

 is a constant joy in having to determine what the new 

 species are which he happens on day by day. His task is, 

 indeed, rendered comparatively difiicult by the fact that 

 eastern classification proves of little service to him. 

 Even Scribners' recently issued volumes carry him only 

 as far as the 102nd Meridian. Coulter's fiora of Califor- 

 nia is helpful, and I'rofessor Macoun's Catalogue may 

 afifbrd hints as to what the species are, although it does 



