A number of naturalists catalogued New York City’s wild flora beginning in the early 1800s. Samuel Latham Mitchill, physician and surgeon-general of New York State, amassed a private collection of wild plants in the New York City region, listing their known medicinal uses. As president of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, Mitchill was instrumental in the effort to catalogue the flora of both New York City and State. A census of flora in Manhattan conducted by John Eaton Le Conte in 1811 tallied 450 species (this first publication of naturalist LeConte was written in Latin). Botanist John Torrey collected plants within a thirty-mile radius of Manhattan, assiduously sorting out native from non-native plants, noting their medicinal as well as culinary uses. On Manhattan, he identified many of the grasses of “meadows, parks, lawns, and roadsides” as naturalized European species, including Timothy Grass (Phleum pratense), Fox-tail (Alopecurus pratensis), Crab-grass (Digitaria sanguinalis), Brome Grass (Bromus species), and Bermuda Grass. Other non-native plants included Privet (Ligustrum vulgare), Speedwell (Veronica agrestis), Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), Bittersweet (Solanum dulcamera), Wild Carrot (Daucus carota), Tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), and Shepherd’s Purse (Thlaspi bursa-pastoris). (I have used Torrey’s nomenclature.) He published his catalogue in 1819, listing the plants by their Latin and common names and giving the places where specimens were collected. He also catalogued the flora of New York State in 1843, counting 160 plant species as introduced or naturalized. The count might have been 161 had he known that Clover (Trifolium repens) was non-native; he supposed it to be native because “it springs up everywhere.” Other introduced plants included Berberis vulgaris, Common St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum), and Wild Mustard (Sinapsis arvensis) — a “noxious weed.” A now-rare native wild plant he listed was American Globeflower (Trollius laxus).