THE FLORA OF THE CAYUGA LAKE BASIN, NEW YORK 

 VASCULAR PLANTS 



Karl M. Wiegand and Arthur J. Eames 



It is now thirty-nine years since the publication of Dudley's Cayuga 

 Flora. 1 This period has been one of great activity among American 

 taxonomic botanists. Many new species have been described, and the 

 status of others has been changed. In some cases the limits of genera and 

 of families have been modified, and a system of classification wholly 

 different from that employed by Dudley is now in general use. Botanical 

 nomenclature has undergone a considerable evolution, a change which 

 has resulted in a crystallization of procedure into definite codes. In con- 

 nection with this, a not inconsiderable change in names has taken place. 



During this whole period, local botanists have actively continued the 

 exploration of the Cayuga Lake Basin and the critical study of its flora. 

 For some time it has been apparent that a new catalog is urgently needed 

 in order that the present knowledge of the region may be in more readily 

 available form. Some nine or ten years ago, the project of rewriting 

 the flora was definitely outlined and work upon it was begun in earnest. 

 At that time much work still remained to be done on the exploration of 

 remote or little visited localities, and it was necessary to collect a suffi- 

 ciently large quantity of herbarium material to give accurate data on 

 range and frequency and to serve as a basis for revisional study in the 

 more difficult groups. About fourteen thousand collections have been 

 made and a specimen from each has been mounted for the herbarium. 

 This large number of collections should render the records fairly com- 

 plete. Many revisional studies have been finished and the results pub- 

 lished in botanical journals. Little evidence was at hand as to the 

 soil preference of various species and varieties, and their local soil dis- 

 tribution. Consequently, notes and data were accumulated not only from 

 the field but also from herbarium records, catalogs, and other sources. 

 However, the subject of soil preference is new, and, though progress 

 has been made, there still remains much to be done. 



The work on the flora has been stimulated by the growing conviction 

 that, among other factors, one which is of prime importance to the 

 progress of scientific agriculture is a knowledge of the wild-plant covering 

 of the land. Useful and deleterious plants are thus detected and recorded, 

 while of still greater fundamental importance is the ability gained to 

 judge the nature of the soil by means of the wild plants as indicators. 



1 Dudley, William R. The Cayuga flora. Part I: A catalogue of the Phaenogamia growing 

 without cultivation in the Cayuga Lake Basin. Bulletin of the Cornell LTniversity (Science), 2: 

 1-xxx, 1-132. 1886. 



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