FLORA OF PEORIA. 

READ BEFORE THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION SEPTEMBER 10, 1886, 
BY DR. J. T. STEWART, EX-PRESIDENT. 

When we look abroad upon the landscape which surrounds us and see the 
endless variety, the multitudinous forms of vegetable life growing and unfold- 
ing before us, it seems like a hopeless task to bring order out of the apparent 
confusion, to classify and name all these forms; yet it can be done—it is 
done. Every leaf of the forest may be so described that another botanist 
can draw it accurately and usually give it its proper place. There is more 
order in nature than appears on the surface. It only requires systematic 
study to learn her ways, to unravel her complications and reveal her secrets. 
Life in all its forms of manifestation, from the simple vegetable cell to the 
complex human organization, is essentially the same, is governed by the same 
laws. The study ofa flora involves the study of these laws. Not only the 
principles of classification which are essential, as without a knowledge of them 
no considerable progress could be made, but the whole range of laws which 
govern life in all its forms. I say this so you may realize that the view I 
shall give to-night of our flora is but a superficial one, only a bird’s eye view 
as it were of a great subject, a subject which to grasp its breadth and depth 
and learn its full meaning requires years of study. It matters not what de- 
partment of the field of nature we enter our lives are too short to exhaust it. 
The more of its mysteries we are able to solve, the more we find yet unsolved. 
This is the experience of every man who has attempted to read and translate 
the book of nature,— to fathom the mysteries of the living world. 
The richness and variety of the flora of all countries and sections of coun- 
tries depend upon the soil and climate. If the soil is rich and varied and the 
seasons warm, with an abundance of rain, the flora is rich both in species and 
individuals. These conditions obtain in a high degree in this vicinity. 
In an early day our flora was one of extraordinary richness. But like all 
other thickly settled countries the indigenous flora has suffered from the en- 
croachment of civilization. 
The greater part of the city is built on a slightly undulating plateau of 
sandy loam with the lake and river on one side and a range of hills on the 
other. From the extreme upper to the lower end of this plateau is about six 
miles. At the upper end it is about one-fourth of a mile in width and gradu- 
ally widens to about a mile and a half at the lower end. Back of this range 
of hills or bluff as we call it, the land is high and rolling, a portion of it 
prairie loam, but most of it light timber with a clayey soil. Some 
high gravely knolls and deep ravines are also found here. Below we strike 
Kickapoo Creek with high, rocky hills and deep glens. On the south and 
southwest we have the river which opposite the middle of the city and for 
eighteen miles above it expands into a lake ranging from three quarters of a 
mile to a mile wide. Beyond this lake there is a bottom a portion of which over- 
flows. In this bottom are marshes and bogs and clear springs bursting out of the 
