Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/223

Rh mous task of familiarizing himself with the plants of Oregon. Washington, and Idaho and then collecting and writing descriptions of them. Mr. Howell thus began the writing of his "Flora of Northwest America" in 1882. When he had prepared the ﬁrst fascicle of this work he found another obstacle to surmount, for there was no typesetter in Oregon able to "set. up" the technical matter. But the indefatigable collector was not to be thus hindered from bringing together the results of years of ﬁeld experience, so he learned to set type. and during the past eight years has "set up" form after form until the 816 pages have been printed. It is the only botanical work that covers this part of the United States.

Mr. Howell's descriptions are usually general enough to include possible variation. While he has divided several families. he has not favored the elevation of every variety to the rank of a species. He has followed the arrangement of Bentham and Hooker. His work describes 3,150 species; 2.370 of which are herbaceous ﬂowering plants. The rest are trees, shrubs, sedges, and rushes. As Mr. Howell wished to see for himself every ﬂower he described, he necessarily bad to endure many hardships in making journeys to out-of-the-way places. He has done all this work purely because he loved the science, without hope of any remuneration at the end worth considering and with practically no aid but the encouragement of his friends. During the printing of the "Flora" his friend, Mr. Martin (lorman. gave him aid of a more practical value by reading and revising the proofs. Mr. Howell has donated his large collection of plants to the herbarium of the University of Oregon, where it is now being deposited. The people of this State might well honor Mr. Howell for his unselﬁsh efforts to advance the scientiﬁc knowledge of our Northwest Coast.

The great diversity of soil and variation of climate and altitude in this Oregon Country has offered a very rich ﬁeld for botanical investigations. Our plants have remained so long undescribed that they seem to a botanical student to