GENERAL FLORA OF NEBRASKA. 77 



CHAPTER VII. 



GENERAL FLORA OF NEBRASKA. 



AN OBSERVER casually passing over the State little suspects 

 the wealth of vegetable forms that clothe the land. To under- 

 stand, however, its botany, this one fact needs to be borne in mind, 

 namely that Nebraska is the meeting place of two somewhat 

 diverse floras. Here the plants indigenous to dry regions and those 

 common to humid sections come together. The slope of the land 

 eastward is so gentle that Rocky Mountain forms come more than 

 half way to meet their distant relatives from the moister regions of 

 the Missouri and Mississippi. In fact here Rocky Mountain plants 

 by slight and gradual change in environment, have adapted them- 

 selves to a climate very different from their native habitat. The 

 same can be said of forms whose centre of dispersion was the Mis- 

 sissippi basin. Hence it is that the best botanical floras of the 

 schools — such as Gray's Manual and Wood's Class Book — do not 

 describe many of our floral forms. Singularly enough what they 

 leave off can mostly be found in Porter's and Coulter's Colorado 

 Flora. The former were only intended for the region east of the 

 Mississippi, but this section, in addition to that, grows many of the 

 plants of the Rocky Mountains. This is one reason why there is 

 such a wealth of vegetable forms in the State. It has drawn for 

 its supplies from two diverse regions, and owing to the magnifi- 

 cence of its climate, and the richness and variety of its soils, it has 

 successfully acclimated plants from high, dry and cold regions, and 

 those from low, humid and hot sections. I have thus far collected 

 over 2,100 species and varieties of plants from this State.* Com- 

 paring this number with the lists from other States, it will be seen 

 that our wealth of native varieties and species is exceptionally 

 great. And yet the harvest to be gathered, especially among the 

 lowly cryptogamic forms, is hardly touched. 



* See my Catalogue of the Flora of Nebraska, published by the University of Nebraska, 

 1875. The next edition will have at least 100 additional species. 



