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FLORA OF MANITOBA

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS

By A. H. REGINALD BULLER, D. Sc., Ph D.,

Professor of Botany in the University of Manitoba.

HE Flora of Manitoba up to the present has been studied but very little, so that it is not yet possible to present any adequate account of the Algae, Fungi, Liverworts, or Mosses. The first list of Phanerogamia and Pteridophyta was compiled for this hand-book by the late Rev. Canon Burman, whose death occurred on January 30th of this year. Canon Burman, who was born in Yorkshire, England, came out to Manitoba whilst still a young man, and lived in the Province for more than thirty years. During this time he gradually obtained a unique acquaintance with the flora, and last year was induced to compile a list of the Phanerogamia and Pteridophyta. Unfortunately his illness prevented any revision of the list. Canon Burman was perhaps the only man in Manitoba who possessed a comprehensive knowledge of the local flora, and the Province could ill afford to lose him. His death is particularly regretted in view of the visit of the British Association to Winnipeg.

A few plants not recorded by Canon Burman were found by Mr. C. W. Lowe last summer. They have been included in the list, and are marked with an asterisk.

THE PHANEROGAMIA AND PTERIDO

PHYTA OF MANITOBA

By the late REV. W. A. BURMAN,

Of St. John's College, Winnipeg.

N presenting the following list of Manitoba Plants,

IN

no claim is made to completeness. There is a large amount of work yet to be done within the bounds of the Province as at present constituted; while, with the extension of the boundaries to Hudson's Bay, doubtless the flora will be enriched by the discovery of many subArctic species. Most of the Plants included in the present list were collected by the writer. The remainder have been added from the records of Dr. G. Macoun and Mr. G. M. Macoun of the Geological Survey, and chiefly consist of species collected in the extreme North-Western part of the Province.

The nomenclature adopted is that used in the catalogue of plants issued by the Geological Survey of Canada, which gives a very full list of synonyms; for the sake of economising space, the authors of the nomenclature used have not been named.

For the study of Plant distribution, the Province may be divided into four districts:

(1) EASTERN DISTRICT. This extends from the Eastern shore of the Lake of the Woods almost to the Red River, and includes a number of small lakes which are drained by the Winnipeg River. The rocks towards the Eastern side of the district belong to the Laurentian and Huronian formations, but towards the West they gradually disappear and are succeeded by fine lacrustine deposits of glacial age.

In the Southern part of the district occur a number of sandy ridges, which are covered with "Jack" pine and poplar. The intervening areas are largely occupied by swamps, in which the prevailing trees are Tamarac, Spruce and Poplar.

Towards the extreme West the woods become replaced by open, low-lying prairie, which forms part of the fertile Red River Valley. Further North there is a strip of park-like country, about 50 miles in width, in which occur occasional exposures of limestone, as at Tyndall, and deposits of Glacial Drift. Still further North, the Laurentian system dips beneath the waters of Lake Winnipeg and forms the Eastern shore.

The Eastern District is marked by the final occurrence toward the West of a good many species of plants belonging to Western Ontario, the Winnipeg River valley being roughly the Westerly limit of their distribution. Here the white and red pine disappear, also Acer spicatum and Pirus Americana, along with a number of herbaceous plants affecting rocky uplands.

(2) THE NORTH-WESTERN DISTRICT. This district sweeps away from the Red River, North of Winnipeg, to the North-Western corner of the Province. It is extensively wooded, its forests consisting of poplar, birch and spruce, accompanied by willows and bog-plants. At intervals it is broken up by extensive inter-glades of lowlands, which produce a large number of species of grasses and sedges. Its extreme North-Western division is an interesting region, in which occur the Riding, Duck and Porcupine Mountains, with which are associated many lakes and rivers. We here find a good many plants which also occur towards the East.

(3) THE SOUTH-WESTERN DISTRICT. This includes the rising ground which once provided the Western shores of the so-called old Lake Agassiz. The various elevations, such as the Pembina and Turtle Mountains,

ultimately became the first prairie plateau, and present a flora characteristic of the high prairie regions. In the extreme West of the Province are even found types belonging to the semi-arid regions further West. Examples are: Mamillaria vivipara, Opuntia Missouriensis, Artemisia frigida, and Oxytropis splendens. The series of ridges known as the Pembina Mountains are especially interesting, for they produce both lowland and upland types and also yield a few rarities such as Sanguinaria Canadensis. The Assiniboine River and its tributaries drain a large part of this plateau, and the valleys, particularly that of the Assiniboine-deeply cut through the elevated prairie-furnish a varied and profitable field for systematic work.

(4) THE CENTRAL DISTRICT. This covers the alluvial region of the Red River Valley. Included within it are the low-lying lands on both sides of the Red River, which extends Westward up to the foot of the Pembina Mountains and the other elevations to the North of it. This district has its characteristic flora, a marked feature of which is the large number of species of Compositae. Winnipeg comes within this district. A few miles North of the city is the limestone ridge known as Stony Mountain. Although its elevation is inconsiderable, the rocky substratum furnishes conditions favourable to the growth of a number of species differing greatly from those on the plain a few feet below. Among them are some which are not common in any other part of the Province, such as Gerardia tenuifolia, Boltonia asteroides, Bouteloua racemosa, and the curious little fern Pellaea atropurpurea, which is found on the exposed limestone boulders. Within the bounds of the City of Winnipeg is located the Northern limit for the occurrence of Amorpha Gruticosa, which, so far as the writer knows, is confined entirely to the Red River Valley, down which it has travelled from Dakota.