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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