Box 13, Folder 12: Catalogue of the Plants of Illinois 1857

[902 L312]

[Sir Wm. J Hooker] TRANSACTIONS [With respects of I. A. Lapham] OF THE

ILLINOIS STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, WITH NOTICES AND [see page 492]

PROCEEDINGS OF COUNTY SOCIETIES AND KINDRED ASSOCIATIONS. JOHN A. KENNICOTT, EDITOR. S. FRANCIS, COR. SEC'Y, IN CHARGE.

VOLUME II. - 1856-57.

SPRINGFIELD: LANPHIER & WALKER, PRINTERS. 1857.

491 Will you not bring the subject, in some tangible shape, before the agricultural societies of the country? A simple memorial from them to congress would not fail to procure all the legislative aid necessary. Some of the leading scientific men of Europe are ready to join us in such a plan; and with authority to confer with them officially as to details, I have no doubt that most of the governments of the world would undertake, each for itself, and within its own territories, a corresponding series of observations, so that we should then be able to study the movements of this great atmospherical machinery of our planet, as a whole, and not, as hitherto, in isolated, detached parts. Respectfully, &c., M.F. Maury, Lt. U. S. N. N. B.-- Series of observations, more or less extensive, have been undertaken in various parts of the country, and for objects more or less general and useful. Among them may be mentioned those of the Smithsonian Institution, under the direction of Prof. Henry, the immediate object of which is an investigation of the law of storms. Several of the states and many individuals are co-operating with him; also, those of Louisiana, by Dr. Barton, concerning sanitary laws, and those of Prof. Espy, and others. It is hardly necessary to add that the plan now proposed is not calculated to interfere with any of these; on the contrary, it is in furtherance of them all, and differs from them only in being universal, and in establishing co-operation and concert between the observers at sea and those on land.

492 Catalogue of the Plants of the State of Illinois By I.A. Lapham, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During several journeys through the state of Illinois, at various times, since the year 1836, I have carefully noted her botanical productions, and hence am able to make a catalogue of the species growing within her boundaries. But the following enumeration embraces many species which I have admitted on the authority of others. As early as 1794, Andre Michaux, a distinguished botanist of France, visited Illinois in search of plants, which were to be sent home to enrich the gardens and pleasure grounds of his own beautiful country. In 1803, was published, in Paris, his "Flora Boreali-Americana," the first general work on the botany of North America, in which a number of plants are set down as having been found "in regione Illinoensis," or "in vastissimus praten-sibus Illinoensibus." In 1826 Dr. Lewis C. beck published his contributions towards the botany of Illinois and Missouri, in the 10th and 11th volumes (1st series) of Silliman's American Journal of Science and Arts. But most of the localities mentioned by Dr. Beck are in Missouri. In the same work, volume 46, for 1843, we find a catalogue of a collection of plants made in Illinois and Missouri, by Charles A. Geyer, with critical remarks, &c., by George Engelmann, M.D., of St. Louis. In this paper several new species are described, and quite a number added to the flora of the state. Dr. C.W. Short, of Louisville, Ky., has published in the West-ern Journal of Medicine, for March, 1845, an account of his observations, (made in autumn) on the flora of the prairies of Illinois. He traversed the central portions of the state, and return-ed by a different route, which gave him an opportunity of seeing and examining the face of the country and its productions, under a great variety of aspects. Being an enthusiastic botanist, and traveling in a light covered wagon, well prepared for making extensive collections, his observations are of great value, and add

493 much to our knowledge of the peculiar vegetation of the central portions of the state. I cannot resist the temptation to copy a few of his very graphic descriptions: "In a geographical point of view, the surface of Illinois may be very appropriately, as it is naturally, divided into three dis-tricts. First-- the heavily timbered tracts which, for the most part, occupy the southern portion of the state, bordering on the Ohio river, and which, extending into the middle and northern portions, are found in detached bodies, surrounded by prairies, and in these situations are called 'groves.' These groves are, for the most part, contiguous to and often bounded by water courses, which have preserved them from the action of fire. Secondly-- the open prairies of from one to twenty miles in diameter, entirely destitute of trees, and indeed of all other woody plants, except along the margin of water courses which occasionally pervade them. Thirdly-- the 'barrens,' or tracts somewhat intermediate between the two former, being sparsely covered with oak trees of several different kinds, andn of considerable size, with a dense un-dergrowth of various shrubs and annual plants. The third region bears a close relationship, both in appearance and productions, to the districts in Kentucky, which are called 'barrens'-- tracts of country which seem to be in a state of transition from more open prairies to densely timbered forests. The vegetation of these three districts is, of course, essentially different; but apart from the presence of absence of trees, which constitute the grand feature of distinction, the annual and suffruticose plants are wide-ly different,a nd indeed in many respects entirely dissimilar. Even the productions of the open prairies vary greatly as the sur-face of the prairie may be high, rolling, rich and dry, or low, flat, wet and clayey. "On fairly entering the prairie region, and reaching the centre of one of these immense natural meadows, the view presented to the eye of a novice in such scenery is one of the most pleasing sort. But beautiful, imposing, and even grand, as is this spectacle, I must own that, in a botanical point of view, I was disap-pointed. The flora of the prairies--the theme of so much ad-miration to those who view them with an ordinary eye-- does not, when closely examined by the botanist, present that deep interest and attraction which he has been led to expect. Its leading fea-ture is rather the unbounded profusion with which a few species occur, in certain localities, than the mixed variety of different.

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species occurring anywhere. Thus, from some elevated position in a large prairie, the eye takes in, at a glance, thousands of acres literally empurpled with the flowering spikes of several species of liatris; in other situations, where a depressed or flattened sur-face and clayey soil favor the continuance of moisture, a few spe-cies of yellow-flowered coreopsis occur in such profuse abundance as to tinge the entire surface with a golden burnish. This pecu-liarity of an aggregation of individuals of one or more species to something like an exclusive monopoly of certain localities, ob-tains even in regard to those plants which are the rarest and least frequently met with; for whenever one specimen was found, there generally occurred many more in the same immediate neighbor-hood." After enumerating the principal species of Gramineae, Dr. Short adds: "All these grasses, in their young and tender states, are eagerly devoured by cattle. As they become harder and less succulent by age the coarser are rejected, and the more tender are sought for. Among these, I believe, the vilfa is a general fa-vorite, both for grazing and for hay. All of them, however, are cut promiscuously for this purpose, and when they occur, as fre-quently as they do, in large natural meadows, occupying the ground to the almost entire exclusion of other vegetables, they yield a productive return to the labor of the mower; and when well cured make excellent hay. Our horses which had never before been accustomed to any other than the cultivated grasses, ate this natural hay with great avidity. The quality of these grasses, both for pasture and mowing, is much improved by the burning of the prairies during the winter, which, destroying the dead and dry stems, affords a better and earlier bite in the spring, as well as a cleaner swath for the scythe; and by protecting certain por-tions of the prairie from the action of fire until the spring or early summer, vegetation is then so much retarded by a late burn, as the settlers call it, as to afford good pasturage throughout the latter part of the season." To Dr. S. B. Mead, of Augusta, Hancock county, I am indebt-ed for a catalogue of the plants growing in that vicinity, and also for very numerous specimens. He has probably devoted more time and labor to the examination of Illinois plants than any other botanist, and his collections now form part of most of the principal herbaria of the world.