PAPERS ON BOTANY 



137 



THE GRASS FLORA OF ILLINOIS 



EDNA MOSHER, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 



The grasses of the State have been listed several times in 

 connection with various published floras of the State, but as far 

 as I know only one paper has been devoted solely to this sub- 

 ject. This is a paper by I. A. Lapham of Milwaukee, who 

 in 1857 listed and described 50 genera and 114 species of 

 grasses, excluding those cultivated for grains. He also pub- 

 lished a flora of the State in the same volume of the Transac- 

 tions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society. Additions 

 to this list were made from time to time by Dr. Brendel, M. S. 

 Bebb, S. B. Mead and Dr. Vasey. The first extensive local 

 flora was published by H. H. Babcock of the plants found 

 around Chicago. He listed 58 species of grasses. H. N. 

 Patterson of Oquawka published a flora of the State in 1876, 

 in which he included 52 genera of grasses and 124 species. 

 In 1878 W. C. Flagg compiled from these previous lists a flora 

 of Illinois, having in addition some material collected by Dr. 

 Burrill and others in the vicinity of the University. He in- 

 cluded 55 genera and 139 species of grasses, which is probably 

 the largest list of grasses of the State up to the present time. 

 There have been a number of other local lists published. Some 

 of them contain very few grasses. The most important of the 

 local lists are Dr. Brendel's of Peoria, in 1887, including 70 

 species of grasses, a flora of Cook county by Higley and 

 Raddin, including 85 species, and a flora of LaSalle county by 

 Huett with 79 species. In undertaking to work over the grass 

 flora of the State, the collections of the previously mentioned 

 writers have been consulted as far as possible. 



The University of Illinois has many specimens collected by 

 Mead, Webb, Vasey, Hall and Patterson, beside the entire 

 collections of Dr. Brendel of Peoria, Dr. Schneek of Mt. 

 Carmel, and Dr. Welsch of Mascoutah. The later collections 

 of V. H. Chase of Stark county, F. E. McDonald of Peoria, 

 and Chas. Robertson of Carlinville, contained many interest- 

 ing species. The Field Museum in Chicago contains Patter- 

 son's entire collections with many others collected by Wolf, 

 Mead, Bebb and others. Babcock's herbarium is at North- 

 western University and has been consulted, but the entire col- 

 lections of Dr. Vasey have not been seen nor that of Prof. 

 E. J. Hill of Chicago, who has made some new records for 

 the State. 



