7 . 
It will be seen by this enumeration that there are over 
seventy species in Illinois that attain the height and dignity of 
.y' 
forest trees, including twelve or thirteen species of oak. The rich 
bottom lands along the margins of the Mississippi, the Ohio, and the 
Wabash, afford specimens of the noblest and most gigantic trees of the 
great valley of the west. It was here that Michaux became so deeply 
impressed with the grandeur and magnificence of the forests of the 
new world. "The difficulties, privations and dangers, to which he 
was exposed, at that early day, in these unsettled wilds, may be 
easily imagined; but we can readily conceive that these were more 
than balanced in his mind by the delights which he experienced in 
traversing a hitherto untroden region, through which, in reference 
to the lights of science, and the labors 01 civilization, it may truly 
be said: 
He bent his way where twilight reigns sublime 
O'er forests silent since the birth of time!* 
The "Sylva Americana" of his son remains to this day the only 
standard work on the Forest Trees of the United States. 
* Dr. C. W. Short on the Progress of Western Botany, p. 7. 
List of the Natural Orders of Illinois Plants, with the number of 
indigenous and introduced species; and the whole number of species 
native of the northern United States, (including Kentucky and. 
Virginia) irorn Dr. A. Gray's Manual, 2d Edition. 
Orders 
: Illinois Plants 
: Indie:. : Intro. : 
• 
• 
Total : 
Indigenous in 
Northern U. S. 
Rununculaceae 
30 
30 
49 
Magnollaceae 
2 
2 
6 
Anonaceae 
1 
1 
1 
Menispermaceae 
2 
2 
3 
Berberidace&e 
2 
2 
5 
Nelumbiaceae 
1 
1 
1 
Cabombaceae 
1 
1 
1 
Nymphaceae 
2 
2 
2 
Papaveraceae 
2 
2 
2 
