

6 BOTANY OF MADISON, LINCOLN, GARRARD, 



enwraps from nakedness and cold ; and it is to plant life, 

 when the diseases incident to life overtake us, that we turn 

 for remedies which shall restore us to health. 



Beyond the study of vegetation as an intellectual pleasure 

 or as elements of personal welfare, there is another and more 

 universal phase — the preservation of the race of mankind. 

 Of all the forces of nature, no one plays a more important 

 part than does the plant life of tin; world. The formation and 

 stability ol climates, the distribution and preservation of mois- 

 tures, the control and destruction of poisonous gases, and the 

 preparation and protection of soils, are only some of the offices 

 which plant lite perform in the economy of nature. As man 

 has the power to destroy all plants, he is fitted to make the 

 surface of the earth, by his intelligent care, a smiling garden 

 — or by his ignorant destruction, a terrible desert. From an 

 ignorance of those laws fair countries have been destroyed 

 and depopulated, and the same destructive influences are still 

 at work. 



With the above facts before it, the State Legislature re- 

 quired that (hiring the investigation of the Geological Survey, 

 the trees and smaller plants should receive some attention 

 from its members. Every note written on a subject adds 

 some new value to it ; one man does but little towards the 

 investigation of any one subject. Each man is apt to examine 

 one class of phenomena and pass the others by. In the brief 

 notes appended, a few facts gathered here and there are pre- 

 sented. The list of flowering plants and ferns is far from 

 being complete. The whole flora of a region can only be 

 made out by the work of local botanists. It requires the 

 constant work of years. Yet the notes and catalogue are 

 of some value, for they add a mite to the work done, and to that 

 which is to be completed in the future. 



ORIGIN AND INTRODUCTION OF TIMBERS. 



It is impossible to determine from whence the original tim- 

 bers of this region were derived, and how much they have 

 been changed from their original characters. But it is proba- 





