Bulletin - United States National Museum - Smithsonian Institution

FLORA OF WASHINGTON AND VICINITY. 17
1,500 vascular plants. It would appear, therefore, that only a little
over half the plants actually existing were discovered by the botanists
of that day and enumerated in their catalogue. If the proportion of
disappearances could be assumed to be the same for species not discov-
ered as for those discovered by them, this would raise the aggregate
number to considerably above one hundred, perhaps to one hundred and
twenty-five.
The great number of present known species not enumerated in the
Prodromus, some of them among our commonest plants, and amounting
in the aggregate to 535 species, is another point of interest, since, after
due allowance has been made for mistakes in naming them, it remains
clear on the one hand that their researches must have been, compared
with recent ones, very superficial, and on the other that, not to speak of
fresh introductions, many plants now common must have then been
very rare, otherwise they would have proved too obtrusive to be thus
overlooked.
There are many other interesting facts growing out of a comparison
of these two remote dates, but space forbids their further discussion.
Anyone can pursue the subject who desires to do so, from the data
already given and to be given, or by consulting the Prodromus itself.
IV. LOCALITIES OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO THE BOTANIST.
The flora of a wild region is always more uniform than that of one
long subjected to human influences. The diversity in the former is a
natural consequence of the corresponding diversity in the surface and
other physical features. In the latter it is due to conditions arbitra-
rily imposed by man. A primeval flora is usually more rich in in-
digenous species, but the artificial changes caused by cultivation often
offset this to a great extent by the introduction of foreign ones. This,
however, greatly reduces its botanical interest.
In many respects the botanist looks at the world from a point of view
precisely the reverse of that of other people. Eich fields of corn are
to him waste lands; cities are his abhorrence, and great open areas un-
der high cultivation he calls "poor country"; while on the other hand
the impenetrable forest delights his gaze, the rocky cliff charms him,
thin-soiled barrens, boggy fens, and unreclaimable swamps and morasses
are for hmi the finest land in a State. He takes no delight in the " march
of civilization," the ax and the plow are to him symbols of barbarism,
and the reclaiming of waste lands and opening up of his favorite haunts
Bull. Nat. Mus. No. 22 2