304 The Botanical Gazette. [May, 
work is more difficult, naturally, and hence more valuable than the 
making of lists with no reference to floras. One is thoughtful classi- 
fication, the other mere catalogue making. To define a biological 
area and then to observe not merely what plants grow upon it, but 
chiefly their distribution with reference to each other and to the area, 
is a difficult bit of field work, calling for training and good judgment, 
but it is correspondingly valuable. 
ANOTHER DANGER in the compilation of a “state flora” is that the 
compiler is inclined to lay special stress upon those plants which may 
be new, or peculiar to the state, or rare. Such plants, it is true, are 
very interesting, and suggest certain things; but the enthusiasm they 
excite is out of all proportion to their scientific value, and 1s a sur- 
vival of the “collector” spirit, which has in it no thought of biology. 
The facts of real biological significance to be observed in the study of 
any flora are to be obtained largely from the common and hence neg: 
lected plants. They are the species which endure diverse conditions, 
which vary widely, which develop divergent characters, which are full 
of information concerning natural selection, heredity, geographical 
distribution, etc. A list of plants so rare that their remains are to 
found in but few herbaria may make the eyes of a collector glistet, 
but the biologist will take far more satisfaction in a few good obser 
vations upon the behavior of some common plant. 
* * 
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or not. 
friends 
n this 
