358 
stituting a natural group or family. In this sense it includes corn, wheat, 
oats, rice, the cane, &c., while it excludes clover and many other plants 
usually called grass, but which belong to very different groups or fami¬ 
lies. It is in the latter sense or meaning of the word that it is used, and 
must be understood in the following pages. 
In attempting to make up a list of the native and naturalized grasses 
of Wisconsin, we are embarrassed by the paucity of observers. There 
are but few botanists in our new state, and only a very small portion of 
its surface has been explored by persons qualified to discriminate the 
different species that may fall in their way. Doubtless there are many 
grasses growing within our limits, not yet detected, especially in the 
northern and central counties. I have not hesitated, therefore, to include 
those species of grass that have been observed in the adjacent country, 
many of which will perhaps be hereafter found in Wisconsin. 
For the grasses of Ohio, besides my own observations in that State, I 
am indebted to the catalogues and communications of Dr. J. L. Riddell, 
Mr. Wm. S. Sullivant, Mr. Joseph Clark and the late Mr. T. G. Lea. 
For those of Michigan, the catalogue of Mr. John Wright, accompanying 
the Geological Report of Dr. Houghton, for 1839, is the only published 
resource. To Mr. Dennis Cooley, of Washington, Macomb County, my 
thanks are especially due for a very complete list of the grasses growing 
in his vicinity; and Mr. Charles Fox has kindly communicated several 
rare species from that State. I have but little information in regard to 
the grasses of Indiana, and did not succed in obtaining a list of those 
found in that State. 
The plants about the shores of Lake Superior have been investigated 
and partially catalogued by W. A. Burt, W. D. Whitney, and Professor 
L. Agassiz. Those of Iowa, Minnesota, and the north-western part of 
Wisconsin are enumerated by Dr. C. C. Parry, in the late Report of Dr. 
Owen, on the Geology of the same district. 
From Illinois I have received a very complete suit of specimens, col¬ 
lected by Dr. S. B. Mead, of Augusta, in Hancock County. A few spe¬ 
cies are added on the authority of Dr. C. W. Short, of Kentucky, and of 
the French botanist Michaux, who visited the southern portion of that 
State, and described its flora as early as 1794. 
Within the limits thus indicated there have been detected one hundred 
and forty nine species, including several only known in cultivation. Their 
names, general character, time of flowering, &c., will be seen in the fol¬ 
lowing Table: 
