December, 1958 Carter: Applied Botany and Plant Pathology 



147 



By 1865 concern was voiced that trees 

 of the state were beinj^ used so rapidly 

 for lumber that cultivation and planting 

 of trees should be promoted. Minier 

 (1865, 1868) published two articles on 

 the cultivation of forest trees. In his sec- 

 ond article Minier (1868:279) stated: 

 "Tree planting in Illinois is no longer for 

 ornament merel\'. It has become a neces- 

 sity. ... If, then, the coming genera- 

 tions are to be supplied with timber, the 

 present must plant it for them." Edwards 

 (1868) recommended planting trees but 

 pointed out that black locust trees that 

 had been planted 25 years earlier had 

 been seriously damaged by borers. 



Specific interest in some specialized 

 groups- of plant life in Illinois became 

 evident shortly after 1870, as indicated 

 b\ the works of Thomas J. Burrill on 

 plant diseases caused by fungi and bac- 

 teria. Burrill, on the staff of the Illinois 

 Industrial University, the University of 

 Illinois, and the Illinois State Laboratory 

 of Natural History, was a close associate 

 of Stephen A. Forbes for 27 years. He 

 reported on fungus diseases in the 1870's, 

 especially on fungi which cause diseases 

 of vegetable and fruit crops (Burrill 

 1874, 1876, 1877). Later he reported 

 that the widespread blight of pear trees 

 was caused by a bacterium (Burrill 

 1881). This, the first report that bacteria 

 cause plant diseases, opened up a new 

 field of research. Burrill continued to 

 publish articles on fungi and bacteria 

 that cause plant diseases and in 1885 he 

 published a 115-page article, in the Bul- 

 letin of the Illinois State Laboratory of 

 Natural Historv, on the parasitic fungi 

 of Illinois (Burrill 1885). 



Following 1885 botanical research ex- 

 panded in scope to include all types of 

 native and naturalized plants in the 

 state. The work of Burrill while on the 

 staff of the Illinois State Laboratory of 

 Natural History from 1885 to 1892 in- 

 dicates the expanding development of 

 botanical interest in forest trees and dis- 

 eases of crop plants. Burrill prepared 

 papers not only on fungal and bacterial 

 diseases of crop plants but also on forest, 

 roadside, and street trees, biology of silage, 

 and extermination of the Canada thistle 

 (Burrill 1886. 1887^, 1887r, 1888, 

 1889fl, 1889/;, 1890). Among others em- 



ployed as botanists on the stafif of the 

 State Laboratory of Natural History were 

 Rachel M. Fell, Arthur B. Seymour, 

 Benjamin M. Duggar, and Arthur G. 

 Vestal. 



A well-illustrated, 142-page article on 

 edible and poisonous mushrooms in Illi- 

 nois, prepared by Walter B. McDougall 

 (1917), was published in the Bulletin of 

 the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural 

 History. This article contains many 

 plates illustrating the mushrooms de- 

 scribed and is exceedingly useful in dif- 

 ferentiating between poisonous and edible 

 mushrooms. 



Studies on plankton were carried on bv 

 C. A. Kofoid from 1895 to 1900 and bv 

 Samuel Eddy from 1925 to 1929. Ko- 

 foid's extensive work on the plankton of 

 the Illinois River was published in the 

 Bulletin of the Illinois State Laboratorv 

 of Natural History (Kofoid 1903, 1908)'. 

 Eddy's work dealt with plankton of Lake 

 Michigan, the Sangamon River, and some 

 sinkhole ponds in southern Illinois; this 

 work was reported in the Bulletin of the 

 Illinois Natural Histor\- Survev (Edd\- 

 1927, 1931, 1932). 



Interest in the ecology of vegetation 

 and plant associations of sand prairies in 

 Illinois is indicated by the papers of C. A. 

 Hart and H. A. Gleason (Hart & Glea- 

 son 1907; Gleason 1910), F. C. Gates 

 (1912), and Vestal (1913) published in 

 the Bulletin. Information was obtained 

 not only on the general plant associations 

 but also on the phvsical environment, the 

 blow-out formations, the blow-sand com- 

 plex, the blackjack oak associations, and 

 some adaptations of the plants to the en- 

 vironment. 



Although Minier (1865, 1868) and 

 Edwards (1868) were concerned about 

 the rapid destruction of trees in the 

 1860's, it was not until 1911 that a policy 

 on forest management was recommended 

 by R. C. Hall and O. D. Ingall. In an 

 article on forest conditions in Illinois, 

 published in the Bulletin (Hall tS: Ingall 

 1911), they recommended (1) adoption 

 of an adequate state fire-protection sys- 

 tem, (2) inauguration of an education 

 campaign for scientific and practical forest 

 management, and (3) further investiga- 

 tion of the forest problems involved and 

 development and extension of wood lots 



