NARRATIVE. 



The admirable collection of informal ion on bhe flowering plants 

 and vascular cryptogams, which Mr. Opham embodied In his 

 Oatalogui of the Floraof Minnesota, published in L884, made 

 available essentially all that was at that time procurable 

 regarding the Minnesota flora, with the exception ofa compara- 

 tively small amount pertaining to the lower cryptogams. Mr. 

 Cpham has brought this catalogue up to date in a supplement 

 included in tin- present report. 



Were botanical science stable and mature instead of changeable 

 and growing, and could one always rely upon the determination 

 <>f plants made by various observers, it would be only necessary 

 to add to this excellent beginning such additional names as might 

 be report ed from time to time, until all the plants of the state 

 had been enumerated, when a final revision would afford a com- 

 plete flora. But such conditions do not exist, and the only satis- 

 factory method of overcoming the sources of error accompanying 

 the alternative, especially when the work extends through a 

 number of years, as proposed for the Minnesota survey, is to 

 provide a substantial basis in the form of a suitable herbarium, 

 so that in the final enumeration a critical and comparative study 

 of material actually in hand may serve to point out former mis- 

 takes, and enable the whole to be revised according to the latest 

 developments of the science. 



In more formally opening up the botanical work of the survey 

 it is proposed, in accordance with these views, to emphasize at 

 fust two mutually supplementary features, the preservation ofa 

 herbarium to serve as a basis for study, and the systematic ex- 

 ploration of the less known parts of the state ; at the same time 

 data will be gathered, as far as possible, upon all questions of 

 interest connected with the state flora, which will be embodied 

 in reports as occasion requires. It ifl not intruded to interrupt 

 the general enumeration of plants already referred to. a part of 

 the survey originated and prosecuted by Mr. Upham, with the 

 co-operation of many local collectors, including several specially 

 enthusiastic students of field botany. 



Tie- locality selected for exploration for the season of 1SSU was 

 Vermilion lake and vicinity, a region lying between the north 

 shore of lake Superior and the International Boundry. The 

 botanical party reached Vermilion lake July 17th. and went into 



