PLANTS OF MONROE COUNTY. 61 ■ 



In the summer of 1909 several species of plants foreign to our 

 flora were found at Highland Park, in the southern part of the city. 

 These plants were growing on newly seeded portions of the park. 

 The grass seed used in sowing these places had been purchased 

 from several dilTerent dealers and then mixed, so it was impossible 

 to trace its origin, but the new species were mostly western plants. 



The same stock of grass seed was used for seeding the slopes 

 of the Cobb's Hill reservoir, then lately completed, and the following 

 year a large number of new species of plants were found thriving 

 vigorously in this new home. Through the kindness of Mr. C. C. 

 Laney, Superintendent of Parks, these new plants were allowed to 

 grow unmolested, and they increased in number and variety until 

 36 species foreign to our district had been found around the reser- 

 voir and at Highland Park. 



After a few years it became impracticable to allow the grass 

 on the slopes of the reservoir to remain uncut. For at least three 

 or four years mowers have been regularly run over the ground and 

 the plants have had to try to hold their own and make their way 

 as best they could. It speaks well for their sturdiness and persis- 

 tence that the majority of them have retained their hold and still 

 survive. During the summer of 1916 representatives of nearly all 

 the new species were found growing in more or less vigor, although, 

 as a result of their being so frequently decapitated, many of them 

 have not been allowed to blossom and so have not increased in 

 abundance. Occasionally some in a favored location, close to a 

 protecting tree or shrub, or on the steep sides of the reservoir where 

 they have escaped the sharp teeth of the mowers, still not only sur- 

 vive but bloom quite freely. As it seems unlikely that any of them 

 will ever become pernicious weeds, it is hoped that no particular 

 pains will be taken to eradicate them, and that they will be allowed 

 to live and thrive, for it adds interest to our flora to have these far 

 western plants domesticated here. 



The following list gives the names of these foreign species, al! 

 of them determined by the State Botanist, and all represented in 

 the herbarium of the Academy, or the State herbarium, or in the 

 collections of the members of the Botanical Section : 



