THE CAYUGA FLORA. xi 



Flora occupies a portion of that singular and much eroded table-land 

 which forms the extreme outworks of the great Alleghany mountain- 

 chain, but which is cut off from it by the rather narrow valley of the 

 Susquehanna River. This fact presents us with the interesting and 

 subtle problem of our relationship to the peculiar Alleghanian flora, 

 for the solution of which our section of the table-land ought to fur- 

 nish a better field than any other, both on account of its elevation 

 and the narrowness at this point of the valley separating us from the 

 Alleghany foothills. Furthermore this table-land was the boundary 

 of the ancient inland sea, which according to a favorite hypothesis 

 with geologists, once existed over the whole area occupied by the 

 great lakes and the low country adjoining, and which may have 

 drained southwardly through several of the deep channels, the so- 

 called preglacial valleys, continuing southwardly from most of our 

 Central New York lakes. If this ttypothesis is correct the North 

 should have contributed some peculiar plant to our region as it has to 

 Niagara, the present gateway of its waters. It is reasonable to sup- 

 pose that a few would become permanent if the conditions were favor- 

 able. To the first of these problems we are not fully prepared to give 

 an answer although we have visited the Alleghanies in Virginia and 

 elsewhere for comparison of floras. Upon the second, more can be 

 said and both are touched upon later in the discussion of the " Lesser 

 Local Floras." 



The Maps. 



The Map of the Lake Region of Central New York.— -The title of 

 this map sufficiently explans its chief object. It was also designed to 

 show the relation of our own hydrographic basin to those surrounding 

 it, and to furnish a convenient hand-map to those in adjoining coun- 

 ties, who are making field observations in botany. There is little 

 about its construction that professes to be original. Within our own 

 basin, however, the interesting marshes and higher hills and certain 

 features of Cayuga Lake have been indicated, in addition to those 

 given on the ordinary maps. The maps of N. Y. are notoriously in- 

 accurate ' as regards the exact geographical position of towns, and 

 must be much more so in regard to streams, features always slurred 

 over by commercial map-makers. As the above-named map was based 

 on the French map and those of Asher and Adams' Gazetteer, the er r 

 rors, except certain prominent ones in our own basin, could not be 

 eliminated. 



The Map of Lthaca and Vicinity. — This is designed for the use of 

 collectors who wish to go out for a single day's excursion from the 

 University. In its construction we took as a basis the excellent map 

 of Cayuga Lake and its shores, constructed after a careful survey by 

 the Engineering Department of this University, and we would thank 

 the professors in that department not only for- the use of this, but for 

 additional measurements derived from the same source. Of the vari- 



1 See statement in Report of the N. Y. State Survey for 1S76 and 

 1877, by JamesT. Gardiner. 



