PAPERS OX BIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE 119 



■ THE PEESENT STATUS OF PALEOBOTANY IN 



ILLINOIS 



A. C. NOE, L^XR-ERSITT OF ChiCAGO 



The first Survey of Illinois contains in Volume 2 

 (1866) and Volume 4 (1870) numerous descriptions of 

 fossil plants by Lesquereux. The Swiss naturalist, who 

 had arrived in the United States as a companion of Louis 

 Agassiz, was destined to become the father of paleobot- 

 any in this country, while Sir William Dawson had in- 

 augurated the same science in Canada. Lesquereux 's 

 domicile was in Cincinnati, and he acted as a consulting 

 paleobotanist for the newly created state surveys, as weU 

 as for the United States Geological Survey. His interests 

 were broad, but the majority of his i^ublications deal with 

 the Paleozoic floras, foremost among which is the Coal 

 Flora of the Carhouiferous Formation in Penusiflrania 

 and throughout the United States. In Atlas, Volume 1, 

 (1879); Volume 2, (1880); and Volume 3, (1884) many 

 specimens from Illinois are described and pictured. 



Lesquereux apparently did not visit many localities, 

 but had specimens sent to him. While this method saved 

 much time, and accounts for the large amount of Lesquer- 

 eux 's publishing, it had obviously two drawbacks — the 

 exact geologic horizon of the plant deposit was rarely de- 

 termined with accuracy, and only specimens which 

 looked good to the average collector were sent. Lesquer- 

 eux did not have at his command the rich paleobotanic lit- 

 erature which the great French, English, and German 

 paleobotanists produced in the last quarter of the nine- 

 teenth centuiw, and in which the coal floras of western 

 Europe were described. Therefore a rather complete re- 

 vision of Lesquereux 's determinations seems to be highly 

 desirable before the study of American fossil floras can 

 proceed much further. It is urgently to be hoped that a 

 catalogue of the Paleozoic floras of North America may 

 soon follow Knowlton's catalogue of the Mesozoic and 

 Cenozoic plants of North America. 



In the years 1906, 1907, and 1908, a new period of 

 Paleozoic plant studies in Illinois was inaugurated. 



