The Botanical Pursuits of John Samples, Pioneer Ohio Plant Collector (1836-1840)

Author Institution: Department of Botany, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MichiganFrom 1836 to 1840, John Samples, an Urbana, Ohio, school teacher and self-taught botanist, assembled one of the earliest collections of vascular plants from southwestern Ohio. Today his collection is preserved in the University of Michigan Herbarium. Of Samples' personal life, little is known except of his teaching. He conducted a private school in Urbana from 1833-1838 and taught briefly in Cincinnati in 1839. More is known of his botanical studies since he corresponded with John Torrey and Charles W. Short, two well-known botanists of the day. From these letters we learn that without the aid of "an instructor or anything indeed" he began his herbarium in the spring of 1836. The record of his botanical work ends abruptly in June of 1840. Cedar Swamp, the Mad River and its tributaries, Wisham's Pond, Dougan Prairie, and the "barrens" were among his favorite collecting sites in Champaign County. Here he not only secured most of the common plants of the region, but also some plants which have either never or rarely been collected in the area since. He also gathered plants in Hamilton, Logan, Madison, Miami, and Scioto counties. Plants from his friends' gardens indicate that he had an interest in gardening. In this study, 490 of his specimens have been located. A list of these plants with his original notes serves to document the natural flora of the Mad River valley as it was known in his day

Paul Bigelow Sears (1891-1990): Eminent Scholar, Ecologist and Conservationist

Paul Bigelow Sears, botanist, ecologist and conservationist, was one of the most respected and honored ecologists in North America. He had the remarkable ability to explain complex environmental problems clearly and simply to colleagues, students and citizens. Sears devoted his life to furthering man’s understanding of the delicately balanced ecosystems upon which mankind’s very survival exists. The keenness of his mind, the warmth of his personality, the quality of his writing and his capacity to relate scientific problems to human affairs earned Professor Sears the distinction of an exemplary individual in American science. For his many accomplishments, he was the recipient of many honors and awards

Aquatic Flowering Plants New to the Erie Islands

Author Institution: Assistant Professor of Botany and Curator of the Herbarium, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210 and The Frans Theodore Stone Laboratory, Put-in-Bay, Ohio 43456The aquatic Angiosperm flora of the islands at the western end of Lake Erie was intensively studied by A. J. Pieters and E. L. Moseley 60-70 years ago and 20 years ago by E. L. Core. Since then, additional species have been discovered, of which twenty-four are recorded here. Of these Phalaris canariensis, Scirpus acutus, Rorippa sylvestris, Hibiscus militaris, Ammannia coccinea, Epilobium hirsutum, Lycopus asper, L. europaeus, and Mentha gentilis appear to represent recent invaders. Other species, all of which are native, may have either become established recently or may have been overlooked by past workers

Index to Biographical Sketches and Obituaries in Publications of the Ohio Academy of Science, 1900-1970

Author Institution: Historian-Archivist, The Ohio Academy of Science, Columbus 43201 and College of Biological Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus 43210Four-hundred and eighty biographical sketches and obituaries of Academy members and other noted scientists are indexed from The Ohio Naturalist, The Ohio Journal of Science, The Proceedings and Annual Reports of the Academy, and The Ohio Academy of Science News, as a service to Academy members, Ohio scientists, historians, and others interested in locating information about scientists, living and dead, recorded in Academy publications

Distribution of Naturalized Carduus Nutans (Compositae) Mapped in Relation to Geology in Northwestern Ohio

Author Institution: College of Biological Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, and Department of Geology, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio 43402Within recent years the nodding thistle or musk thistle (Carduus nutans L.) has become naturalized and abundant in northwestern Ohio in at least two areas, the Castalia- Bellevue-Sandusky area and the Carey area. In the summers of 1967 and 1968, the total detailed distribution of Carduus nutans in these two areas was mapped by noting its occurrence and abundance in relation to the general geologic conditions, topographic features, and habitats. The thistle was most abundant in moderately grazed pasture fields, hay fields, and along grassy roadsides on high, dry ridges and hillsides where the limestone or dolomite bedrock was less than six feet below the surface. Plants were rare or infrequent where the bedrock was deeper, in flatter terrain, in cultivated fields, and along railroad tracks. Detailed maps of the two areas depict, by the use of three different sizes of dots, the aproximate abundance of the plants at each site and the correlation of this distribution with the geologic substrate. Expansion of the plant's local range by natural means is slow, because many of the heads do not have fully developed achenes, the achenes do not readily become separated from the head, and the heads tend to drop to the ground directly beneath the parent plant. These data, although limited, may allow botanists to predict locations where Carduus nutans might be expected to invade in the future, and geologists to infer, from reported occurrences of the plant in Ohio, the presence of limestone or dolomite bedrock at shallow depths

Return and Increase in Abundance of Aquatic Flowering Plants in Put-In-Bay Harbor, Lake Erie, Ohio

Author Institution: Herbarium, Museum of Biological Diversity, The Ohio State University ; Department of Biology, Utica College of Syracuse UniversityThe initial survey of aquatic flowering plants in Put-in-Bay Harbor, South Bass Island, OH, by Pieters (1901), and a follow-up study by Stuckey (1971), documented an overall loss of 50% of the species, and 61% of the submersed species. In the past 25 years, and moreover in the past five years, dramatic new changes in the species composition have occurred in the flora: 1) nine species have returned or appeared for the first time, 2) fourteen species have continued to survive or have increased in abundance, and 3) five species have declined in overall abundance. The return of species requiring clear water for seed germination and growth and the reduction in abundance of species tolerant of turbid water may be related to the invasions and spread of Dreissena polymorpha (Zebra Mussel) and Dreissena bugensis (Quagga Mussel) which have resulted in increasing water clarity. Vallisneria americana continues to be the dominant submersed species of Put-in-Bay Harbor