04 Muhlenbergia, Volume 6 



COLORADO IN THE NEW ROCKY MOUNTAIN 

 BOTANY 



By George E. Osterhout 



Dr. John M. Coulter's "Manual of the Botany of the Rocky 

 Mountain Region" was published in 1885, and the "New Manual 

 of Botany of the Central Rocky Mountains," which is Dr. Coul- 

 ter's Manual revised by Dr. Aveu Nelson, was issued early in 

 1910. Dr. Coulter has had a deep interest in this revision, as 

 Dr. Nelson tells us in the preface: "The work has gone through 

 the press under his direct supervision, and all the proof sheets 

 have passed through his hands." Dr. Coulter, too, contributed 

 the main preface which defines the territory covered, and states 

 the aim and scope of the book. To Dr. Nelson, however, the 

 real work of the revision fell. "Professor Nelson has com- 

 pletely rewritten the book, and in such a wav that it is as far 

 from being a compilation as so general a manual can be. He 

 has checked up the descriptions by an examination of the plants 

 and by his extensive field experience. Descriptions and keys 

 have been tested repeatedly, and are believed to be workable." 



The territory embraced is not exactly that of Coulter's Man- 

 ual, though the difference is not great. "The purpose has been 

 to use Colorado as the center of the flora included in the man- 

 ual, and to present complete the flora of that state, of Wyoming, 

 of Yellowstone Park, and of the Black Hills of South Dakota: 

 also to include most of Montana, southern [daho, the eastern 

 half of Utah, and the northern half of New Mexico, and adja 

 cent Arizona." 



Xo statement of territor) to the east of Colorado is made, 



it Colorado is the centei of the territory, there must of ne- 

 cessit) be some of western Nebraska and Kansas included; and 

 when we read of a plant "extending into the eastern part of our 

 ," 01 "extending into 0111 range from the eastern United 

 States," we would not know from this statement that the plant 

 hikUi consideration belongs to the Colorado flora. 



Colorado then being the centei "I this territory, we should 

 expect to find in it a richer flora than in the surrounding terri- 



