Studies of the Monroe Collection of Asters 

 Hermann C. Benke 



One of the outstanding collections in the Department of 

 Botany of the PubUc Museum at Milwaukee is that of the genus 

 Aster of the late Charles E. Monroe/ a distinguished attorney 

 of that city. 



For many years Mr. Monroe was particularly interested in 

 this genus using all the time possible from his profession to make 

 a wide collection and study of it, both in the field and in her- 

 baria. His collections cover an extended territory of eastern 

 Wisconsin, besides gifts and exchanges from other collectors; 

 among them Dr. H. V. Ogden, Dr. A. B. Stout, and the Messrs. 

 Sam. C. Wadmond, Rowland Russel, \Vm. Finger, \Vm. V. 

 Wright, and the writer. In addition, he made a number of col- 

 lecting and study trips into Illinois and eastward into Ohio, 

 Connecticut and Massachusetts. 



In September, 1913, a pamphlet was published by Mr. 

 Monroe as a Bulletin of the Wisconsin Natural History Society, 

 devoted mostly to his findings in Wisconsin asters, but also 

 treating the work done by former workers on the genus in the 

 state from the earliest records, 1838, to the date of his publica- 

 tion. 



Mr. Monroe's herbarium specimens are models of neatness 

 and precision — numbered and arranged by species and their 

 variations in leaf -form, coloration, pubescence and other char- 

 acters. This arrangement, together with its extensiveness, care- 



1 Through the courtesy of Albert M. Fuller, Curator of Botany at Mil- 

 waukee Public Museum, and H. W. Cargill of Oberlin College, a few lines of 

 biography can be given: 



Charles E. Monroe was born March 28, 1857, at Oberlin, Ohio and died 

 there May 12, 1931, at the age of 74. He was a graduate of Oberlin College 

 and of the Law School of the University of Michigan. In 1924, he was married 

 to Marie Jussen, a niece of Carl Schurz — soldier, statesman, journalist. 



Mr. Monroe collected most of the asters himself, but his sister, M. K. 

 Monroe, who passed away in 1917, did some collecting, particularly of violets, 

 and his wife collected quite a number of the asters of the eastern states. 



"In the museum herbarium we have 5,341 catalog numbers, consisting 

 of 17,975 sheets. The bulk of his collection which he gave to us in 1924 we have 

 kept intact as a collection. We must have at least 5,000 miscellaneous numbers 

 which he gave to us before 1924, which are in our general herbarium." — Fuller. 



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