pletc list of our native vegetation. It is the embodiment not only of 

 the hilars of Dr. Lapham himself but also of all his predecessors, in 

 studying the botany of Minnesota. Ilundieds of local amateur botan- 

 ists will scan its pages. It furnishes a platform from which to begin a 

 ■careful search for other species, and to which, as a check-list, to re- 

 fer future examinations. The issue of this catalogue, as liere pub- 

 lished, is actually the very first and most important step toward the 

 ■exhaustive study and complete development of the botany of our 

 .State. B}' this means, when the State survey, ordered by the Leg- 

 islature of 1872, is ready for the enumeration and classification of 

 our flora, a vast amount of information will be at hand, in the pos- 

 session of the botanists of the State, stimulated and guided in their 

 work 1)}' the systematic arrangement here presented. In this sense, 

 then, it is a publication of the geological and natural history survey 

 of the State, since it will redound largely to the progress of that 

 work, to whose care Dr. Lapham at first confided it. — N. H. W.] 



But verj^ little definite information has yet been published in re- 

 gard to the native vegetation of Minnesota. Mr. Thomas Say, the 

 di&tinguished zoologist, and one of the founders of the Academy'" of 

 Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, while connected with the expedi- 

 tion of Maj. Long, collected a few jdants which were examined b}' 

 the late Lewis Von Schweinitz, and noticed in the narrative of that 

 expedition. Prof. D. B. Douglass, of West Point, had previously 

 brought home a few Minnesota plants which were placed in the hands 

 of Dr. John Torrey, of New York, and noticed in Silliman's Ameri- 

 •can Journal of Science for 1822 ; and Dr. Douglas Houghton, of 

 Michigan, added quite a number to the list, on the return of the party 

 that first visited Itasca lake, and discovered the true source of the 

 Mississippi in 1832. In the reports of Nicollet and Owen lists are 

 given of plants collected by persons connected with their surveys; 



All these lists have been consulted in the preparation of this cat- 

 alogue, which, nevertheless, rests chiefiy upon my own observations 

 and collections made during several excursions into the State ; one 

 «of which, in the spring of 1857, was extended to the waters of the 

 Red River of the North. 



In 1858 Mr. Robert Kennicott made collections of plants and ani- 

 mals in the Red Ri\ er country which nw preserved by the North- 

 western University at Evanston, Illinois. Mr. Charles A. Hubbard 

 •collected expressly for me a large number of plants including mosses 

 and lichens, while on a tour from Lake Superior to Lake Winnepeg and 

 Pembina, as vveli as while on his return by way of St, Paul. In 1861 

 Mr. T.J. Hale while prosecuting geological investigations along the 

 Mississippi river in connection with the Wisconsin State surve}'. made 

 some collections of plants in Minnesota, a list of which he has kindly 

 furnished to me. Several species are introduced upon his authority. 



This catalogue shows that there are growing naturally in INIinne- 

 sota 48 forest trees, 77 species of the grass family, 133 compound 

 flowering plants, 22 coniferous trees and shrubs, 38 kinds of pod- 

 bearing (Leguminose) plants, 23 ferns, 50 mosses and lichens ; and 

 a total number of about 850 species. It is not to be supposed, how- 

 ever, that this is a complete list of the plants of Minnesota; hun- 

 dreds ol species yet remain to reward the industry of future observers. 



