

A (WTALOdlK OF THE PLANTS OF MINNESOTA. 



HY 1. A. I.AIMIAM. I.I,. !>., OK MII.WAUKKK, WIS. LSG'). 



[Note. — Dr. 1. A. Lupluiin, whoso deiilh occurred iiL Milwaukee 

 on the 14lh of September, l-sTo, had been a prcnninent scientilic ob- 

 server and writer in the Northwest for more tlian twenty years. 

 While his field was mainly within the State of Wisconsin, of which 

 he published an accurate geclogical map in 18GI), he made several 

 extended tours of observation in the Slate of Minnesota, in connec- 

 tion both with pidilic and private surveys. He was hrst to call at- 

 tention, in a systematic way, to the remarkable elfect of the Great 

 Lakes on tiie climate of the country contifjuuus to them. A ^roiK 

 of his on the '' Antiiiuities of Wisconsin," was public' > ' uy the 

 Smithsonian Institute in its contributions to knowieclge, in 1855. 

 Occasional papers of his have appeared from time to time in the 

 Avierlcan Jonrvnl oj Science and tlie American Naturalist, on the 

 Geology, Arclueology, Zoology, Botany and Climatology of the re- 

 gion of the Great Lakes. Upon the organization of the i)resent 

 geological survey of Wisconsin, he was very wisely and justly ap- 

 pointed its director He had contributed so largely to the working 

 out oi" the naturnl history of t!ie State that the minuteness of his 

 acquaintance with it could not be acquiied by a stranger in anything 

 short of a lifetime. It is lamentable that a short sighted economy 

 refused, two years ago, to publish the results of his labors and of 

 his coadjutors, and that his manuscripts, stored in the archives of 

 he State, stifled vindicators of his industry and research, are liable 

 to be ignored and forgotten in the further prosecution and final 

 completion of the work. 



With a generous and cosmopolitan spirit which characterized him 

 in his scientific labors, iie st-nt the uianuaciipL of the following cat- 

 alogue of the i)lants of Minnesota to the writer, soon after the ini- 

 tiation of the geological survey of the State, without exi)ressing any 

 desire as to the tlisi>osition that should be made of it. He designed 

 -^it, of course, as a free contribution to the natural history of the 

 ZI Slate of Minnesota, which wouKl be capable of producing more 

 K ^good in the possession of the oflicers of our survey than in his own. 

 S gTlie Hoard of Regents accepted it with due acknowledgments, and 

 g ^wouhl have published it when that branch of the survey should liave 

 5 ^ been undertaken. Hut the death of Dr. Lapham renders it an act 

 ^ S^^ justice to the memory of his genorotis labors to delay its i)ublica- 

 ^ ►- lion no further. 



^ 5 The value of this catalogue to the State of Minnesota cannot be 

 ^ 1^ r^iitnated — the result of no scientific labor can. To the develop- 

 2? X uKiil of the botany of the State it will add a very great impetus. 

 *^ 2 Jt is the first attempt ever made to make out anything like a com- 



