4 SS POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF BOTANY AT ST. LOUIS, 



MISSOURI 1 



By Dr. PERLEY SPAULDING 



LABORATORY OF FOREST PATHOLOGY, BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY, 

 U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



THE history of botany in St. Louis extends back nearly to the be- 

 ginning of her political history. The city was founded in 1764, 

 and while it is not as old as most of the other large cities of this 

 country it seems to have been one of the earliest settlements made in 

 the great northwestern region, comprising what was once known as 

 Upper Louisiana. Boston, New York and Philadelphia were already 

 lar^e cities for that time and were centers of botanical activity. In 

 1795 when Michaux visited the Illinois Territory, Cahokia, Kaskaskia 

 and St. Louis were the principal places west of Vincennes and as late 

 as 1800 St. Louis had a population of less than 1,000. At about this 

 time the fur traders changed their headquarters from Cahokia and 

 Kaskaskia to St. Louis, causing a corresponding increase in population 

 and commercial influence of the latter town. 



The Jesuit missionaries were the first white persons to visit the 

 Mississippi Valley and the adjoining country; they undoubtedly ex- 

 plored the Missouri Territory, but probably not so extensively as they 

 did the Illinois Territory. They were versed to some extent in the 

 art of medicine and knew the plants which were generally used for 

 medicinal purposes. They learned the uses of plants new to them- 

 selves from their Indian wards, and in this way they must have ob- 

 tained a considerable knowledge of the plants of the Missouri country. 

 How much farther they may have carried their botanical studies is 

 unknown to the writer. During the period between the founding of 

 St. Louis and the first visit of Michaux to Cahokia there were un- 

 doubtedly persons who studied the botany of the St. Louis district. 

 Whether they formed any collections of the plants is not now known 

 and there seems to be no records of any such study. 



For all practical purposes Andre Michaux may be said to have 

 been the first botanist to work in the vicinity of St. Louis, 



Botany has passed through a number of distinct periods at St. 

 Louis, as in other places; it can not be said to have had a "pharma- 

 ceutical " period, as that stage was nearly past in the general history 

 of the science when the city was founded. The medical properties of 



1 Published by permission of the Secretary of Agriculture. 



