226 



Tascosa. Tlie frnit is brilliant red, and at a distance looks like flowers. 

 It furnishes an acid juice that is ([uite reiVesliin.i»: to the tired traveler. 

 Jioufeloua eriopoda Torr. <;rows in abundance near Tascosa. At Cana- 

 dian City a splendid malvaceons i>lant {HibiscHs Uisiocarpus Cav.) is 

 common in the Canadian Valley (which here loses its canon form); also 

 Asdepias incaraata L. var. longlfolia Gray was collected in the sajnc 

 locality. 



One of the foxtails {Sefaria glauca Beauv.) forms a good part of the 

 hay in the Canadian Valley, and is considered to be of jioiid (luality. 



The button liush {CephaJanthus occidcntalis L.) is a very common 

 shrub in this valley and along streams in western Indian Territory. 



This district is, on the whole, one vast cattle range, with a few cul- 

 tivated helds in the Canadian canons, watered by springs in the mesas. 



PLANTS CHARACTERISTIC OF SANDV REGIONS. 



Having given some attention to the distribution of i)liints for several 

 years, I have become especially interested in the fact commonly known 

 that certain plants are usually associated with particular soils and cli- 

 mates. However, I can not hope to give anything new in this line, 

 except in so far as I maybe able to present some additional observa- 

 tions, that may be of interest, from a study of the tk)ra of the above 

 districts. 



It has been noted by nearly all observers, I suppose, who have had 

 opportunity, tliat the plants of sandy or desert regions are usually, 

 and unifiu'inly, protected against rapid transpiration by thickened 

 leaves and epidermis, absence or narrowness of leaves, or an unusnal 

 amount of wooliuess or hairiness, ISTow, as one would expect, we find 

 such characters commonly belonging to the si)ecies prevailing in the 

 western Great Plains. Of course the (ireat Basin and other regions 

 farther west and south than these districts that have (;onu' more imme- 

 diately under my own observations would i)robably fnrnisli still better 

 examples of this peculiarity in plant distribution; but various circum- 

 stances do not permit me to include any notes upt>u those regions, 

 although I have been over a portion of the Great Basin. 



It is particularly interesting to trace the gcadually increasing tend- 

 ency to assume these protective chara(?ters on the part of those si)ecies 

 inhabiting both the eastern and western portions of the (h'cat Plains 

 in their <listribntion westward. The very common evening i'rimrose 

 [(Knothera ,s'6'>7-///<f/(? Nntt.) furnishes a good illnstration. 1 have seen 

 specimens of this species in eastern Indian Territory growing more than 

 2 feet tall, with flowers nearly 2 inches across, while in Panhan- 

 dle, Texas, Neutral Strip, and at Point of Kocks, Kans., it becomes 

 ])eeuliarly dwarfed, often not more than (J inches tall, with flowers 

 little more than half an inch across, and the leaves and branches be- 

 come more; wiiitish, narrower, and yet thicker, and the entire plant 

 more massive iu proporti(m to its height. Between these extremes iu- 



