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though most of the describing was done by European botanists 

 up to about a hundred years ago. Others which were at first 

 supposed to be identical with species already known from the 

 Old World were gradually segregated and described as new. 

 But by the middle of the nineteenth century the supply of new 

 species of flowering plants and ferns in this part of the country 

 had been almost exhausted, except in a kw difficult groups which 

 were beyond the comprehension of the average student. Even 

 as far back as 1829 Amos Eaton made this statement in the 

 preface of the fifth edition of his Manual of Botany: "There is 

 not, probably, 50 undescribed species of Phenogamous plants in 

 the United States — perhaps not one species, east of the Missis- 

 sippi." (He lived to see the utter fallacy of this estimate, however.) 



At an early period in the history of American botany, the re- 

 cording of new localities for rare plants, and preparing floras of 

 certain limited areas, became the favorite pursuits of the more 

 ambitious amateurs, and the first few volumes of several of our 

 best-known botanical journals were very largely devoted to stud- 

 ies of this kind. Good work in regional botany is still being 

 done, but in this part of the country it is now hardly possible to 

 prepare a "local flora" of the ordinary type without repeating a 

 great deal that has already been pubHshed. 



In the latter part of the 19th century many botanists who 

 possessed the necessary training and equipment became diverted 

 into the comparatively untrodden fields of anatomy, physiology, 

 pathology, and cryptogamic botany. The opinion was expressed 

 by a prominent botanist in a public address about twenty years 

 ago that in the Eastern United States the non-professional botan- 

 ist, without extensive library and herbarium facilities, could make 

 the best use of his time available for research by studying the 

 histology and development of particular plants. This kind of 

 work is indeed valuable when well done, and the field is well- 

 nigh inexhaustible, but the technique required for its successful 

 prosecution places it beyond the reach of most of us. 



The nomenclature agitations which began in this country about 

 twenty years ago contributed hundreds of pages to botanical 

 literature, and kept all classes of botanists busy for awhile learn- 



