TORREYA 



December, 1913. 

 Vol. 13 No. 12 



LIB 



SOME PLANTS FROM THE VICINITY OF LONGS new 



PEAK INN, COLORADO 60T> 



By T. D. a. Cockerell 



During the latter part of June, my wife and I visited Longs 

 Peak Inn, where the versatile Enos Mills tries to convert a more 

 or less philistine public to some appreciation of the ways of 

 nature, and in his leisure moments writes charming books de- 

 scribing the fauna and other features of the region. Mr, Mills 

 describes his place as a wild flower garden, and has posted up a 

 notice requesting visitors not to wantonly and wastefully pick 

 flowers. Those who will not heed, claiming that it is their 

 inalienable right to destroy as much as they please, are politely 

 informed when the next car leaves the Inn. The flora of Estes 

 Park and Longs Peak have been studied by two generations of 

 visiting botanists, and one might suppose that there would be 

 little new to record. In a sense, however, we are still at the 

 beginning of our botanical studies in that region. Our manuals 

 are necessarily so condensed that they omit almost everything 

 beyond the barest taxonomic facts, and this brevity reacts upon 

 botanists using them, who are usually ready to dismiss a plant, 

 when duly identified, as "well known." Not only does our 

 taxonomic treatment need much revision in the light of careful 

 field work, but there are innumerable problems to be solved, 

 connected with variation, methods of pollination, and what not. 

 Thus any visitor may find out some interesting things even in a 

 couple of days, or may regard from new points of view facts 

 long ago recorded in the books. The following notes merely 

 illustrate this point, and are based upon observations made during 

 three days (June 24-26) at altitudes from about 7,500 to 11,400 

 feet. 



iNo. II, Vol. 13, of ToRREYA, Comprising pp. 249-264, was issued 30 October 1913] 



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