THE ORNITHOLOGIST AND BOTANIST. 



THE GRAY MEMORIAL BOTANICAL CHAPTER 



OF THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION. 



ANNOUNCEMENT. 



The annual election of officers for the 

 Gray Memorial Botanical Chapter will 

 occur in December. A President, Gen- 

 eral Secretary, Treasurer and two naein- 

 bers of the Executive Council are to be 

 elected. Members will please send their 

 votes to G. H. Hicks, Agricultural Col- 

 lege, Mich. , not later than December 1st. 



In view of the fact that the semi-an- 

 nual reports do not keep up the interest 

 in the Chapter, it is also requested that 

 the members vote for or against a return 

 to the method of quarterly reports. 



The semi-annual reports should be in 

 the hands of the President by the first 

 of December. It is hoped that every 

 member will make some report ; an in- 

 complete report is better than none. 



[We are authorized to announce that 

 owing to a pressure of other work, Mr. 

 Hicks will not be a candidate for re- 

 election to the office of President. — Ed. 

 O. &B.] 



FLORA OF DUPAGE CO., ILL. 

 (continued.) 



Less than a score of years ago much 

 of the country was covered with its 

 original prairie sod; but the advent of 

 railroads and the careful systems of 

 modern farming have left the botanical 

 collector only the woodlands, borders of 

 copses and fields, with here and there a 

 small area of virgin soil, which has es- 

 caped the destroying hand of civiliza- 

 tion, to tell him of the wealth of veg- 

 etable forms which the rich soil of these 

 prairies once produced. 



Even yet may be seen in springtime 

 small tracts of native prairie blue with 

 violets, then studded with innumerable 

 stars of Hypoxis erecfa, still later rosy 

 pink with Dnderathenn. then a solid 



field of red with masses osP/iZoxj>i7osa. 

 Midsummer gives here but few flowers 

 that color the landscape, though the 

 wild mustard and Rndbeckia hirta some- 

 time form patches of yellow. Autumn, 

 however, brings its wealth of Liatris 

 and Asters, with a golden glory of Co)-e- 

 ojjsis, Helenium. Golden Rod and Sun- 

 flowers. 



Even within the past sixty years a num- 

 ber of changes in our "flora have come 

 within my notice. Asaruin Canadense 

 and Orchin spectabilis have perhaps be- 

 come extinct, Cypripedivm candiduni 

 and C. spectabilis have grown rare. 

 Liliuni Canadense and L. Philadel- 

 phicum are much less common than for- 

 merly, while of the Jiiglaiis nigra, whose 

 wood was once used for fence posts and 

 common lumber, only an occasional tree 

 can be found. 



In place of these have come a number 

 of plants whose presence is scarcely de- 

 sirable. Meliatus alba covers waste 

 grounds throughout the country, Dan- 

 cus Carota is established in at least one 

 place, C ichor tuin Intybus and Yerbas- 

 citm Blattaria are not uncommon along 

 the road sides. White patches of 

 Chrysanthenmm leucantheimun can be 

 found in a number of places. At Dow- 

 ner's Grove, a whole field became in- 

 fested with this species. The owner, 

 after several ineffectual attempts to 

 eradicate it, concluded to turn the crop 

 to profit, and now sends thousands of 

 " daisies " to the city to be sold to flor- 

 ists. In 1885 a specimen of Oxybaphus 

 nyctagineus was brought to me for iden- 

 tification. The collector said that he 

 found a single plant growing uear the 

 track of the C. & N. W. railroad, a mile 

 east of Wheaton. Now one could easily 

 gather a hundred specimens in that lo- 

 cality, and it has spread along the line 

 oc the railroad for a distance of twenty 

 miles. 



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