Showing remarkable root development.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN YELLOW

PINE. length from tree to point where root enters the ground, 45 feet. FROM PHOTOGRAPH BY PROF. B. C. BUFFUM.

Sand Hills, 12 miles north of Lusk.

FIRST REPORT

-ON THE

FLORA OF WYOMING.

BY AVEN NELSON.

INTRODUCTION.

Among the duties planned by and for the Botanist of the Experiment Station for the year 1894 were the following:

I. To study the Fungi affecting the ordinary farm crops and the best means of combatting the same.

2. To give attention to the weed question, with a view to finding effective methods for exterminating or preventing the spread of the more troublesome ones.

state.

3. The building up of the herbarium.

4. The preparation of a report upon the flora of the

These all received attention to the extent of the time that could be spared from other imperative duties, such as those of the classroom and the routine work of the Station, but it was found necessary to continue the same subjects for 1895. During that time one phase of the first has had attention in Bulletin No. 21, "The Smut of Grains and Potato Scab;" the second in Bulletin No. 19, "Squrrel-Tail Grass (Fox-Tail)," our worst weed, and a Press Bulletin on the "Russian Thistle." The third has, of course, gone on incidentally with and preparatory to the fourth.

Although what has been done in the study of the flora of the state has cost no little time and labor yet the work seems but barely begun. The preparation of a full and reasonably inclusive report on the flora of a great state of nearly 100,000 square miles would be the work of years for a corps of men devoting their full time to the matter in hand, so one man with a full slate of college teaching and other Experiment Station duties, besides that of working up the flora, would lose courage were it not for the absorbing interest of the subject itself. Since to delay the report until it should be approximately complete would project it far into the future and might possibly result in its never being published, it has seemed advisable to publish the results thus far attained. As the work goes on and results accumulate, other reports may, from time to time, appear to record the additions.

COLLECTING TRIPS.

The basis for the following brief report and the catalogue of species rests mainly upon the collections made by the writer in 1894 and in 1895.

With one exception, as given below, no systematic work in collecting had previously been done. In 1892, Prof. B. C. Buffum, at that time acting botanist of the Station, spent the mid-summer months in the field collecting-primarily to secure for the University and the Station a collection of the native grasses and forage plants, an exhibit of which was to be made at the World's Fair at Chicago in 1893. Incidently much more was done, for a considerable amount of good material, other than grasses, must be put down to the credit of the expedition.

From this material were obtained the numbers which formed the nucleus of the present collection in our her

barium. Quite a large part of the state was covered during this trip, extending from Laramie, on the south, to Lander and the Wind River Mountains on the north-west, to Sheridan and the Big Horn Mountains on the north, and Sundance, Fort Laramie, and Wheatland on the east. How many numbers were collected, I am unable to state, as no field or collection numbers were made use of, but in the succeeding catalogue of plants those species where no collection number is noted, are generally to be credited to this expedition. In the Gramineæ and Cyperaceæ much the larger number of species are the result of this earlier expedition in which these groups received such thoroughgoing attention that in the later collecting trips it seemed advisable to concentrate attention upon the other Phanerogams.

It may be of interest to give briefly the history of the field work that furnished the material upon which this report rests.

1894.

During the continuance of the spring term of school, operations had to be confined to Laramie and adjacent territory. Mornings and evenings, holidays and Saturdays were used with all diligence. The most distant point reached was Table Mountain, about twenty miles to the east, and on the west the Laramie River served as boundary line. Limited as was the area covered and late as seasons are at this altitude, June 30 saw 300 numbers collected and stored in duplicate.

At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees at the close of the school year, provision was made for an expedition to go into the field during the summer vacation, in the interest of the departments of geology and

botany. Preparations for setting out were perfected as rapidly as possible, but it was not until July 7 that the start was made.

Beside the writer

THE PARTY

consisted of W. C. Knight, Professor of Geology in the University and Geologist of the Station; Mr. W. H. Reed, who furnished a large part of the outfit for the expedition; Mr. Geo. M. Cordiner, a student at the University, who accompanied the party as the writer's assistant.*

The expenses of the expedition were reduced to a minimum as they consisted of only the actual living expenses of the party in the field, plus the expense incident to securing the services of Mr. Reed, with his two teams and wagons and one saddle horse. The camp equipage consisted of all the necessary utensils, ample bedding, a tent, (which, owing to the perfect weather, was rarely used), a stock of groceries, besides the necessary apparatus for collecting in both botany and geology.

The botanist's outfit may be of interest and was as follows: Two ordinary-sized tin collecting cans, one of which had a number of small compartments at the end for diminutive and delicate objects, and one large tin vasculum-so large that it was always referred to as the "tin trunk." This was indispensable during the long mountain trips, when it was a desideratum to be able to bring back once for all a large amount of material. The most efficient instrument for uprooting plants, both on the plains and among the rocks in the mountains, was found.

*It is with deep sorrow that I record the death of this noble young man. On March 14, 1895 he received fatal injuries during a fire in Laramie by being caught under the falling walls of a building from which he was helping to remove goods. While in the field he greatly endeared himself to the writer by his constant cheerfulness, his remarkable faithfulness to duty, his high efficiency and his moral worth.