Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Botanical Work in Minnesota, Vol. 3: For the Year 1886
The admirable collection of information on the flowering plants and vascular cryptogams, which Mr. Upham embodied in his Catalogue of the Flora of Minnesota, published in 1884, made available essentially all that was at that time procurable regarding the Minnesota flora, with the exception of a comparatively small amount pertaining to the lower cryptogams. Mr. Upham has brought this catalogue up to date in a supplement included in the present report Were botanical science stable and mature instead of changeable and growing, and could one always rely upon the determination of plants made by various observers, it would be only necessary to add to this excellent beginning such additional names as might be reported from time to time, until all the plants of the state had been enumerated, when a final revision would afford a complete flora. But such conditions do not exist, and the only satisfactory 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 mistakes, 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. first two mutually supplementary features, the preservation of a herbarium to serve as a basis for study, and the systematic exploration 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 is not intended 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. The locality selected for exploration for the season of 1886 was Vermilion lake and vicinity, a region lying between the north shore of lake Superior and the International Boundry. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
