INTRODUCTION 19 



David Lyall (36), Surgeon and Naturalist of the North 

 American Boundary Commission, visited Northwestern Montana 

 in 1861. His collections were distributed to nineteen important 

 herbaria. In discussing the region visited, he treats of the 

 Rocky ilountains (presumably the main range) and the Gal ton 

 Range between the Tobacco Plains of the Kootenai and the 

 Flathead Valley. He enumerates those collected between 4,000 

 and 8,300 feet elevation and mentions the following as occurring 

 in this region : 



Pimis monticola Dougl. 



" contorta Loud. 



" flexilis James. 



" ponder osa Laws. 

 Larix occidenfalis Nutt. 



" Lyallii Pari. 

 Pseudotsuga taxifolia (Poir) Britt. 

 Abies amabilis (Loud) Forbes. 



" grandis Lindl. 

 Thuja plicafa Don. 

 Jitniperus scopulorum Sarg. 



John M. Coulter (14), with the Hayden Survey in 1872-3, 

 collected along the Upper Yellowstone and later contributed the 

 first manual of the plants of the Rocky Mountains. Again in 

 1880, the Big Hole Basin and the Bitter Root were visited, this 

 time by Sereno Watson (4), who also made collections in the 

 Valleys of the Hellgate and the Beaverhead. Rydberg (4) from 

 1895 to 1897 covered much of the same ground extending > the 

 exploration northward as far as Deer Lodge, Helena and the 

 Judith Basin. From 1884 to 1904, Leiberg in the service of 

 the Northern Pacific Railway and later with the United States 

 Geological Survey made some collections within the State and 

 reported on the forests of tlie Little Belt (32), the Absaroka 

 (31), and the Bitter Root Mountains. Blankinship (4), while 

 Professor of Botany at the State College of Agriculture at Boze- 

 man, made large collections in various parts of the State from 

 1898 to 1904. These plants have been widely distributed and 

 are largely represented in the herbaria of the State institutions 

 at Bozeman and Missoula. 



