67 



Hitchcock, E. S. Steele, Edw. L. Greene, Edgar T. Wherry, and 

 F. W. Pennell. Among amateurs should be noted L. W. Nuttall, 

 a coal operator of Fayette County, who spent most of his spare 

 time from 1890 to 1898 building up a large collection of plants 

 of that county, largely fungi; and Fred W. Gray, a Presbyterian 

 minister of Pocahontas County, who has made an intensive 

 study of the mountain flora, chiefly lichens, bryophytes, and 

 pteridophytes. The list could be greatly extended, if it were 

 made to include all those whose piecemeal contributions have 

 resulted in the accumulation of the present body of our knowl- 

 edge concerning the flora as a whole. The present staff of the 

 University Botany Department (8) has added the names of 

 hundreds of species new to the state in the course of botanical 

 expeditions that tour the state every summer. 



Plant Formations 



West Virginia was in its primitive condition practically en- 

 tirely covered by forests, principally of deciduous trees, but 

 also including a valuable belt of evergreens along the high ridges 

 of the Alleghenies. Classified according to the Life Zones of 

 Merriam (4), the principal species belong to the Upper Austral, 

 Alleghenian, and Canadian Zones, with a sprinkling of species 

 from the Lower Austral and the Hudsonian. 



The Deciduous Forests, composed of species of the Upper 

 Austral and Alleghenian Zones, are so well-known as to require 

 no description. Along the river valleys, the forest is composed of 

 Populus deltoides, Betida nigra, Castanea pumila, Ulmus amer- 

 icana, U. fulva, Celtis occidentalis, Morus rubra, Sassafras offici- 

 nale, Liquidambar styracifl.ua, Platanus occidentalis , Cercis can- 

 adensis, Tilia heterophylla, Nyssa sylvatica, Oxydendrum arbor- 

 eum, Diospyros virginiana, Fraxinus americana, F. pennsyl- 

 vanica and a whole host of herbaceous species. On drier uplands 

 with poorer soils, the following Alleghenian types are dominant: 

 Carya ovata, C. glabra, Castanea dentata, Quercus alba, Q. prinus. 

 On richer uplands the following are the principal woody species: 

 Juglans nigra, Fagus grandifolia, Magnolia acuminata, M. 

 Fraseri, Liriodendron Tulipifera, Hamamelis virginiana, Acer 

 saccharum, and Rhododendron maximum. 



On the high, cold ridges of the Appalachians the deciduous 

 forests give place to the Coniferous Forests characteristic of 



