66 



River, and along the highway that crosses the creek not far from 

 Western Springs, a few miles west of Chicago. Since then it has 

 spread throughout the region, being abundant by water courses, 

 and especially so by the low margins of the Desplaines to Joliet 

 and below. It should now be looked for southwest of here 

 along the Illinois and perhaps the Mississippi, to which rivers the 

 Desplaines is tributary. As it does not require wet grounds ex- 

 clusively for prosperity, but may do well by moist roadsides or 

 even on drier railway embankments, creeping up probably from 

 near by ditches, it has still another means of distribution. 



This plant seems to have received its first notice in American 

 botany in 1818, both by Nuttall in his Genera (2 : 68), and by 

 Barton in his Compendium Florae Philadelphicae (2: 55), both 

 published that year. It was not mentioned by Barton in his 

 earlier work, Prodromus of the Plora Philadelphica (1815), nor 

 in Muhlenberg's Catalogue (18 13), nor in Pursh's Flora (18 14). 

 Taking these dates as a starting point, it may be concluded that 

 it was introduced into this country not far from that time, since 

 otherwise it could hardly have escaped the eyes of those who 

 then represented the most active botanical center in the land. 

 Under the name of Sisyinbriiim vulgare Persoon {sylvestre L.), 

 or the creeping water rocket, Nuttall states of it : " On the 

 gravelly banks of the Delaware, near Kensington, Philadelphia. 

 Introduced ? Agrees exactly with Sir J. E. Smith's very accu- 

 rate description, Flor. Brit., 2, p. 701. I have never before seen 

 it in America." Barton, under Sisyinbriiim sylvestre L., says : 

 ^' This plant covers large patches of ground on the low wet mar- 

 gins of the Delaware, just above Kensington ; and it has every 

 appearance of being a native there. It is not improbable, how- 

 •ever, that it has been accidentally introduced in that neighbor- 

 hood, where at least it is unequivocally naturalized. I have 

 this summer found young leafing specimens four miles higher 

 up the Delaware." From the tenor of this and from the ques- 

 tion mark used by Nuttall it would seem that there was some 

 doubt about its foreign origin. In Torrey and Gray's Flora of 

 North America (1838-40), under Nasturtiiiin sylvestre R,. Br., 

 Philadelphia is the only station mentioned, Nuttall being cited 



