100 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



PRELIMINARY CHECK LIST OF THE VASCULAR 



PLANTS OF THE ILLINOIS STATE PARK 



AT STARVED ROCK, LASALLE COUNTY 



Frank Thone, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, 



Ark. 



The establishment by the State of Illinois of the first 

 of its state parks at Starved Rock, LaSalle County, has 

 served to focus and intensify the interest of citizens of the 

 state, and of the Middle West generally, in this region. 

 Its great natural scenic beauty attracts tourists and holi- 

 day-seekers generally, and its connection with the labors 

 and adventures of the early French explorers and mis- 

 sionaries gives it interest to students of history. Its 

 great wealth of geological and botanical opportunity are 

 tending to make it a point of pilgrimage for college and 

 university classes bent on more serious and concentrated 

 examination. In the interests of the latter groups it has 

 seemed worth while to offer the accompanying check list 

 of the vascular plants of Starved Rock State Park. 



Up to the present, no list at all approaching complete- 

 ness has been prepared for this region, although inci- 

 dental mention of elements in the vegetation has been 

 made in a number of ecological publications. A local 

 naturalist of an earlier date, Huett (1), makes mention 

 of the "plants of the bluffs along the Illinois River" in 

 his "Natural History of LaSalle County", and in the 

 same work reviews the efforts of two pioneers — who pub- 

 lished their contributions in country newspapers. Cowles 

 lists the more striking and characteristic species in the 

 interesting bulletin on the Park issued by the Geographic 

 Society of Chicago (2), and also makes incidental cita- 

 tions in another paper (3). Fuller and Strausbaugh (4) 

 worked in the neighborhood of the Park, though their 

 operations did not come within its boundaries. Kurz (5) 

 carried on some studies in the Park. The present writer, 

 who worked there during the spring and summer of 1921, 

 has in print three papers on the ecology of the region 

 (6, 7, 8) and another in anticipation. 



The preliminary and provisional character of this list 

 must be recognized. This is particularly true in regard 



