56 WISCONSIIT ACADEMY SCIENCES, ARTS, AND LETTERS. 



ON THE RAPID DISAPPEARANCE OF WISCONSIN WILD 

 FLOWERS; A CONTRAST OF THE PRESENT TIME 

 WITH THIRTY YEARS AGO. 



BY THURE KUMLEIN. 



For the last thirty-two years I have resided in the vicinity of 

 Lake Koshkonong, in Jefferson countj^, Wisconsin, and have dur- 

 ing that time paid some attention to the Fauna and Flora of that 

 localit}", and have collected somewhat extensively in nearly all the 

 branches of Natural Histor3% particularly Ornithology and Botany 



When first I came here in 1S43, a young and enthusiastic na- 

 turalist, fresh from the university at Upsala, Sweden, the great 

 abundance of w^ild plants, most of them new to me, made a deep 

 impression on my mind, but during these thirty-two years a large 

 number of our plants have gradually became rare and some even 

 completely eradicated. 



When first I visited the place where I now live, the grass in the 

 adjoining low-lands was five and sis; feet high, and now in the same 

 locality, the ground is nearly bare, having only a thin sprinkling 

 of June grass, Juncus tenuis and J. bufonius, Cyperus Castaneus, 

 here and there a thistle or a patch of mullein and in the lowest with 

 parts some Carices. As the land gradually became settled, each 

 settler fencing in his field and his stock increased, some plants be- 

 came less common, and some few rare ones disappeared; Lupinus 

 perennis, among the first. But when all the land was taken up 

 by actual settlers, and each one fenced in all his land and used it as 

 fields or as pastures for as many cattle, horses, sheep, and hogs as 

 could live on it without actual starvation, botanizing in this vicin- 

 ity became comparatively poor. 



In the oak openings, besides grasses of several species there were 

 an abundance of other plants of which I will mention only some 

 Orchids from a small piece of opening-land near my residence : Pogo- 

 nia, pendula, Goodyeara pubescens, Corallorhiza odontorhiza, Aplect- 

 rum hyemale, Liparis lilifolia. Orchis spectabilis and Plalanthera 

 bracteata, of these only one or two can be found in the same local- 

 ity now. 



