Volume 35 – Issue 3 (Sep 1970)

The Flora and Vegetation of Kentucky as a Field for Research and Teaching

ABSTRACT Kentucky, a state of great scenic beauty and natural attraction with a well developed system of state parks visited by thousands of people from the urban centres in the North Eastern U.S.A., is urgently in need of its own state flora and ecological botanical survey. The author has concentrated most of his time and attention to organize such a flora since his arrival in the state (August 1968) and this paper gives a survey of work done so far and it shows the unique features of the Kentucky flora and how its study can be coordinated with research and teaching which is relevant to the recent public urge for outdoor recreation and environmental control. A Bibliography of papers published on the Kentucky flora is added.

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Petal venation of Ranunculus sceleratus Linn.

Vein anastomosis has been studied in the leaves of Ginkgo biloba (Arnott, 1959), Kingdonia uniflora (Foster, 1959), and Circaeaster agrestis (Foster, 1963, 1966, 1968), but after the work of Gluck (1919), recent studies on petal venation have been carried by Gumppenberg (1924), Buxbaum (1937) and Arnott and Tucker (1963, 1964). Particularly because of Foster’s suggestion (1968, p. 599) that the petals may provide important clues to the evolutionary developments in venation patterns in the angiosperms, the present work was started. Further, as Arnott and Tucker had studied the venation in Ranunculus repens v. pleniflorus, it was thought that a study of the petals of R. sceleratus may provide useful clues for comparison.

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