220 M. L. FERNALD 
flora as it now exists all such explanations and attempts at correlation 
are futile; and, although I have been allowed the maximum time to 
present my case, I must emphasize at the start the impossibility of 
presenting in one hour more than the briefest suggestion of the 
problem, leaving until we better understand our flora the consideration 
of its exact geographic origin. 
This limited region, from the Hudson and Champlain Valleys to 
the Straits of Belle Isle, contains only about 200,000 square miles of 
land and fresh water, far less than the state of Texas, and approxi- 
mately the area of the combined states of Colorado and Wyoming. 
In latitude the region lies chiefly between the 41st and 50th degrees — 
or parallel with the region from southern Iowa to Lake Winjiipeg or 
from Humboldt County, California, to southern British Columbia. 
Among the earliest districts in America to be settled by Europeans 
and the seat of many of our ancient institutions of learning, the region, 
one might naturally suppose, would ere this have had its flora thor- 
oughly worked out. In fact more than one botanist resident outside 
New England and some who have lived within her borders have ex- 
pressed this belief. Thus we find the printed statement of one who 
has attempted an exposition of all the phytogeographic areas of the 
continent, that "no one region in North America has been more care- 
fully studied botanically than New England." 
Nevertheless, during the past quarter-century, since active botani- 
cal exploration of New England, adjacent Canada and Newfoundland 
has been prosecuted by the present generation, many hundreds of 
species have been added to the known flora of the region. And 
during the last decade it has been a poor summer indeed which has 
not yielded to light a score of novelties, while exceptional seasons 
have yielded a full hundred additions to the known vascular flora of 
the area. Certain days stand out vividly in my mind, when the addi- 
tions to the flora for the single day have mounted to fifteen and some- 
times even to twenty-five species. 
The majority of plants of the greatest phytogeographic interest 
are, naturally, species of highly specialized requirements and con- 
sequently somewhat localized in a region. They are not to be seen 
from the stage-coach, steamboat or railroad-train but must be sought 
in their exclusive haunts. It is for this reason that many easy-going 
botanists have entirely missed the truly significant plants of regions 
they have glimpsed from the steamboat or train. For instance, when 
