32 Flora of Peoria. 
sloughs on the other side. But the crowning glory of our flora is the Nelum- 
brium luteum. It is one of the grandest plants in North America. And this 
seems to be its chief centre. Acres and acres of lake surface are covered with 
its rich, green, orbicular leaves, which measure from one to three feet in diam- 
eter, the flower stems rising two and three feet above them. When in bloom 
they fill the air with fragrance and present a picture more gorgeous than any 
thing which can be found outside of the tropics and one which is rarely 
equaled within them. So far as I can learn it is nearly allied to, if not 
identical with the famous Lotus of Egypt. 
The changes which have been wrought in our flora by civilization during 
the last fifty years have been great. The number of species which have been 
introduced are, perhaps, a little greater than the number of those which have 
become extinct, so that in species there is a slight gain, but in individual 
plants the loss is very great, especially in the grasses and cyperaceze. The cul- 
tivating of the fields, the draining of the sloughs and swamps have destroyed 
the grass and cyperaceze by the wholesale. Representatives of the species 
remain, but they are insignificent as to numbers., Many other plants are 
reduced the same way and some have disappeared. 
The beautiful Cypripedium spectabile which was formerly common is now 
quite rare and will soon be gone forever. So with the C. candidum and even 
the C. pubescens is becoming rare. Twenty years ago there were bogs on the 
other side of the lake containing many acres of ground, which were blue with 
Lobelia Kalmii. These bogs have since been drained and are now cultivated 
fields, and it is difficult if not impossible to find a specimen of Lobelia Kalmii 
in this vicinity. The Salix tristis grew in swamps near this place. It has 
disappeared from the same cause. The same may be said of the Memyanthes 
trifoliata and the Polygonum sagitatum. The beautiful Spirea lobata which 
was so abundant in the same vicinity is no more. 
In 1852 Dr. Fred. Brendel found a single stalk of Tephrosia Virginiana on 
ground which*is now built over by the city. Mr. Charles Balance told him 
that ata still earlier period it was plenty in the same vicinity, but it has never 
since been seen. Dr. Brendel found the same year a single plant of Crotolaria 
sagittalis on the border of the lake where now the pottery stands. It has not 
been found since. In one place across the lake Dr. Brendel found the Flerkea 
proserpinacoides. That ground is now cultivated and it has disappeared. He 
also found across the river the Utricularia intermedia, the Eriophorum gracile 
and the Muhlenbergia glomerata and a few miles below the city the Sperma- 
coce glabra. They are no longer found. 
Of the following only single specimens were found years ago, none since. 
Nasturtium sinuatum, Eloda Virginica, Desmodium panciflorum, Vicia Amer- — 
icana, Phaseolus helvolus, Cornus circinata, Ambrosia bidentata, Gnaphalium 
purpureum, Salix tristis, Habenaria hyperborea, Aplectrum hyemale, Carix 
Richardsonii, Osmunda regalis and Struthiopteris Germanica. 
Many years ago I saw in a prairie not far from here quite a piece of ground 
covered with Sabbatia angularis, but have not been able to find any of it for 
the last thirty years. The Polygalla incarnata was not uncommon thirty years 
ago, but I think it has disappeared. ‘The Dirca palustris formerly grew on the 
other side of the lake but is now gone. Twenty years ago I found one stalk 
of Eupharbia obtusata but have never found another one. 
Why in so many cases a single specimen of a species has been found and no 
others is difficult to tell. It may have been the first from a seed which was 
conveyed by some means from abroad; or it may have been the last of a 
species which from some unknown cause was giving out. Where a plant re- 
quires certain conditions and can only grow where those conditions exist, as 
the Lobelia Kalmii, which only grows in bogs; when these bogs are drained 
and dried it ceases to-grow, or where a species is confined to a limited area and 
