238 



common but differing' widely in those plants from the extreme 

 south of the one and the extreme north of the other. 



This new flora of Colorado is of so much interest as to war- 

 rant a brief history of its origin. During the last decade of the 

 nineteenth century one of the energetic and serious students of 

 the Rocky Mountain plants was Professor C. S. Crandall, of the 

 Agricultural College, at Ft. Collins. During fhe years of his 

 professorship there he accumulated for the College a very cred- 

 itable collection of the plants of the state. It was his purpose 

 ultimately to publish, at least an annotated list, but the work 

 was delayed from year to year partly on account of the unsettled 

 state of the nomenclature problem. Finally Professor Crandall 

 was called from the state to take up another line of work. How- 

 ever, since so much work had already been done and since the 

 collection contained so many specimens new to the state and 

 throwing light upon the distribution of the species, the College 

 officers were unwilling to drop the original plan to publish the 

 accumulated results. 



The notes, however, were not in shape for publication since 

 Professor Crandall had adhered to the nomenclature of Gray, 

 and the scores of new species, in the copious material at hand, 

 had not been characterized. In casting about for some one to 

 put the notes and the herbarium in shape, this privilege was first 

 offered to the present reviewer, who, for want of time, reluct- 

 antly declined what would have been a very pleasant task. Sub- 

 sequently, appeal was made to the Director of the New York 

 Botanical Garden, through whose kindly consent and encourage- 

 ment, Dr. P. A. Rydberg was induced to undertake the task. 

 That the preparation of the manuscript could not have fallen 

 into abler hands needs not to be stated, but it is the irony of 

 fate that the work begun by a " conservative " should have been 

 revised and concluded by an " ultra-radical " of the recent school. 



We need not concern ourselves here with the vast amount of 

 work that confronted the editor. The volume now before us 

 tells its own story as to that. Nor need we refer to the vexa- 

 tious delays incident to the printing of so large a technical work 

 with its thousands of citations. The unusual activity both in the 



