Excerpt from Report on Endangered and Threatened Plant Species of the United States: Presented to the Congress of the United States of America by the Secretary, Smithsonian Institution, 15 December 1974 All animals are dependent on plants for food and survival. Once a spe cies of plant is extinct, the potential contained in that germ or gene pool is lost forever. A diversity of plant species is required to supply human necas sities and to maintain an ecological stability in the biosphere. The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (public Law 93-205, approved December 28, 1973) directed the Smithsonian Institution to prepare a list of endangered and threatened plant species, to review methods of adequately conserving these species, and to report the Institution's recommendations to the Congress. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.