Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/222

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212
Ansel F. Hemenway.

ates about 290 species, but has not the form and accuracy to be of much scientific value.

Captain John C. Fremont had predilections for botany, but his passage through the Oregon country (on the trail of the pioneers to Fort Vancouver and thence along the eastern slope of the Cascade range to California) was accomplished during autumn and winter months, unfavorable for attention to plant life and the work of collecting. His collections are described by Dr. Torrey in “Plantae Fremontianae” in the “Smithsonian Contributions” for 1850.

Fremont mentions meeting a German botanist named Luders on the Columbia, at a little bay below the Cascades, which was called after him Luders’ Bay.

Professor A. Wood made important collections on his journey from San Diego through Oregon in 1866.

In recent times there have been so many who have more or less extensively investigated the flora of this part of the United States that only a few of the more important of them will be mentioned. The following have made important collections or investigations in Oregon: Messrs. Joseph and Thomas Howell, of Milwaukie; Mr. R. D. Nevins. of. The Dalles; Professor Henderson, now in the University of Idaho; Professor J. G. Lemmon, of California. and Professor B. J. Hawthorne, of the University of Oregon. Mr. W. Suksdorf. of \Vhite Salmon; Mr. W. C. Cusick, of Union. and Professor C. V. Piper, of Pullman, have made important collections in Washington. The work of Dr. Henry N. Bolander and Mr. E. Hall also covered a wide range of collections on this coast.

The one who has done the most substantial work for the botany of the northwestern part of the United States. Mr. Thomas Howell, is worthy of a more detailed discussion. He came to Oregon in 1850. He wished to know the plants and trees that grew about him, so he began collecting as early as 1876. But he soon found that there was no work that described completely the flora in this section of the United States. He undertook. to overcome this difficulty, the enor-