THE PLANT AYORLD. 101 



A SAND DUNE FLORA OF CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 

 By Frank K. McDonald. 



IN the very heart of the prairie state of Illinois is a sandy barren 

 with features of vegetation as characteristic as the sand dune 

 flora of the Great Lake region. This sandy waste begins a few 

 miles below Beardstown in Cass Co., and extends to a few miles above 

 Havana in Mason County parallelling the Illinois river and from six to 

 ten miles in width. 



It appears to have been the ancient bed of this stream. In a 

 botanical wav this reaion seems to have attracted more attention in an 

 earlv dav than in late vears. Sometime in the 40' s Carl Gever, a 

 German botanist collected in the vicinity of Beardstown. He ob- 

 tained one species, that has not as far as I know been collected in the 

 state since — Trautvetter'ui palmata. In Patterson's Catalogue of 

 Illinois Plants this species is credited to Dr. Mead, and locality noted 

 thus, "In moist (rround alono- a branch of the Sano;amon river, near 

 the Mounds, about three miles norteast of Beardstown, Cass County." 

 In Mead's herbarium all of the specimens of this plant are of Geyers 

 collecting and from this locality; so, presumably, Geyer is the only 

 botanist that ever obtained it in Illinois. I have made efforts to 

 identify the locality, and rediscover the species but so far without 

 avail. The same collector obtained the t3'pe specimens of Euphorbia 

 here. Dr. Mead and Elihu Hall collected here in a latter dav. 



As there is little in this sandy waste to tempt the agriculturist, in 

 its botanical features it probably is very much the same as fifty years 

 since. In the past few years I have had opportunities for collecting in 

 this region, that enable me to speak in a general way of its botanical 

 features. In its physical features it presents a dreary uninviting ap- 

 pearance. 



It is a dry sandy plain, intersected here and there with swales, 

 that retain sufficient moisture the year around, to support a luxuriant 

 aquatic vegetation, with which this article has not to do. The barrens 

 proper, are ct)mposed almost wholly of clear sand, so loose and shift- 

 ing as to be taken up and swe[)t along with every passing breeze. In 

 early spring, sand storms are frequent, when so dense is the flying 

 sand that one can scarcely see a hundred feet distant. "Where the 

 winds have full scope dunes are formed, especially noticeable near 



