The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-22
THE ADVANCE OF BOTANY.


DR.. Asa Gray last week completed three
quarters of century Of his life. His career
reaches back to the very beginnings of Ameri-
can botany, and he is still at the zenith Of his
usefulness. lie is the author of several man.
uals of botany, the standard, systematic
works upon the subject His lessons" on
plicity, and have been translated into several
languages as text books on the subject I'm
til quite recently, Dr.. Gray has been an active
teacher in Harvard College. His chief work
has been as systematist although he has
kept the entire range of modern botany with
in his scope and grasp The United States
include five distinct natural botanical prov
inces. From the great plains East into Can
ada and New England, and north of Tennes-
see and South Carolina is natural province
containing over 4, 900 species of plants. Most
of the schools and colleges of the United States
also occur in this region. It's plants are in
cluded in Gray's Manual, and are the plants
best known to ordinary students Of analytical
botany. OF these q, 900 Species about 700 to
1000 will be found within fifty or a hundred
miles of any given center. Indiana has about
1,50O plants growing wild within her borders
"a longer list than has been identified in any
adjoining State. The completeness of this
list is mainly due to the exertions of Professor
Coulter, of Wabash College, through the col
umns of the Botanical Gazette" About any
given locality in Indiana an industrious col
lector may find and identify in blossom or
fruit from 500 to 700 species in one season.
Of these, about 500 would have blossomed by
midsummer.
Ordinary college classes in analytical bot
any are expected to identify from one hun
dred to two hundred species before July.
There are about one thousand students of bot
any in the high-schools and colleges of In
diana. They analyze about the same species,
and usually in early spring and summer,
using Gray's Botany almost exclusively. Bot
any has ceased to be girls" study merely,
and in the better colleges is carried on in
large laboratories and has a special professor.
1t is special study of course, in agricultural
and in pharmacy schools.
The second great botanical province in
,sludes the plains and Rocky mountains. This
haa been delegated by common consent to
Prof. Coulter, who has just issued manual
of that region containing descriptions of over
three thousand species, many new to science.
This will meet the needs of the Western
student and schools. The plants of the Pa
cific coast and its mountain ranges constitute
third flora peculiar to itself, and only to be
studied in the natural history reports of Cali
fornia by Prof Serene Watson.
A large area in the southwestern United
States constitutes fourth region, little known,
and of which there is no standard text book,
nor can there be until the botany of Mexico,
with which it is continuous and similar has
been worked up and systematized
lndiiy, Inc pltutS OI tHe OOulucfn ioCaCeS,
from Texas to and including Florida, form
fifth natural province, which has been sys-
tematized in the manual known to hotanists
as Chapmans Southern Flora. This region
is semitropical, and very distinctly charac-
terized.
The above divisions and their corresponding
systematic treatises are based mainly upon
the distribution of Towering plants; it also
includes the ferns, securing rushes and others
of the the higher cryptogams. For the study
of the lower plants-mosses, lichens, alga and
their alles-recourse is had to the manual of
James and Lesquereux. The latter is also our
chief author upon the plants of the coal meas
ures. These he has described and illustrated
at length in the recent geological reports of
Indiana. With these various manuals the
botany of the United States is fairly well
described and accessible to students.