174 



A COMPARISON OF THE FLORA OF SOUTHERN 

 BRITISH COLUMBIA WITH THAT OF THE 

 STATE OF WASHINGTON, AS ILLUS- 

 TRATED BY THE FLORAS OF 

 HENRY AND PIPER 



By James C. Nelson 



The Pacific Northwest, by which rather elastic term may be 

 understood the region extending from the northern boundary of 

 Cahfornia to Prince William Sound, Alaska, and including the 

 present States of Oregon and Washington and the Province of 

 British Columbia, has been a fruitful field for botanical research 

 since the days of Archibald Menzies, and still afifords ample 

 opportunity for scientific investigation. Not only does it possess 

 a vast and diversified flora, with many species of restricted range 

 and habitat, but there exists a marked tendency toward vari- 

 ability, indicating that in* this geologically recent portion of 

 the continent, the process of evolution is still active also in the 

 plant world, and affording strong support to the upholders of 

 the "mutation" theory. As a result of this tendency to varia- 

 tion, the limits of many species are not yet defined, and the 

 relatively few students of the native flora have found themselves 

 unable to cover the field adequately, so that anything like a 

 comprehensive treatment of the flora of the entire region has 

 not yet appeared. The rapid introduction of foreign species, 

 which find in our genial climate and fertile soil conditions almost 

 ideal for their speedy naturalization, still further complicates 

 the situation. The Flora of Howell, that indefatigable pioneer, 

 whose lack of scientific training was compensated for by a bound- 

 less enthusiasm and a keen and accurate power of observation, 

 has now become almost obsolete, so that the present-day student 

 of the Northwest flora is compelled to have recourse to a com- 

 paratively scanty list of local manuals, of very uneven scientific 

 merit. It is a matter for congratulation therefore that Professor 

 Henry has given to the scientific world in his recent manual* 



* Henry, Joseph Kaye. Flora of Southern British Cohimbia and Vancouver 

 Island. Toronto: W. J. Gage & Co. Ltd. 1915. Pp. 3O3. $1.00. 



