Flora of New York/Plants of Monroe County

There following is from [https://www.libraryweb.org/~digitized/serials/roch_academy_of_science/v5.pdf Proceedings of the Rochester Academy of Science, Volume 5. June 1910 to December 1918, p. 62.]

'''PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROCHESTER ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, Vol. 5, pp. 59-121. May 1917.'''

PLANTS OF MONROE COUNTY, NEW YORK, AND ADJACENT TERRITORY.

SECOND SUPPLEMENTARY LIST.

By Florence Beckwith, Mary E. Macauley and Milton S. Baxter, Committee of the Botanical Section.

Introduction of Species.
The number of introduced species is increasing rapidly every year. Many of these introductions are western plants and are found along the railroad tracks, which have been quite regularly patrolled by some of our members every season.

In the summer of 1909 several species of plants foreign to our flora were found at Highland Park, in the southern part of the city. These plants were growing on newly seeded portions of the park. The grass seed used in sowing these places had been purchased from several different dealers and then mixed, so it was impossible to trace its origin, but the new species were mostly western plants.

The same stock of grass seed was used for seeding the slopes of the Cobb's Hill reservoir, then lately completed, and the following year a large number of new species of plants were found thriving vigorously in this new home. Through the kindness of Mr. C. C. Laney, Superintendent of Parks, these new plants were allowed to grow unmolested, and they increased in number and variety until 36 species foreign to our district had been found around the reservoir and at Highland Park.

After a few years it became impracticable to allow the grass on the slopes of the reservoir to remain uncut. For at least three or four years mowers have been regularly run over the ground and the plants have had to try to hold their own and make their way as best they could. It speaks well for their sturdiness and persis tence that the majority of them have retained their hold and still survive. During the summer of 1916 representatives of nearly all the new species were found growing in more or less vigor, although, as a result of their being so frequently decapitated, many of them have not been allowed to blossom and so have not increased in abundance. Occasionally some in a favored location, close to a protecting tree or shrub, or on the steep sides of the reservoir where they have escaped the sharp teeth of the mowers, still not only sur vive but bloom quite freely. As it seems unlikely that any of them will ever become pernicious weeds, it is hoped that no particular pains will be taken to eradicate them, and that they will be allowed to live and thrive, for it adds interest to our flora to have these far western plants domesticated here.

The following list gives the names of these foreign species, all of them determined by the State Botanist, and all represented in the herbarium of the Academy, or the State herbarium, or in the collections of the members of the Botanical Section: