310 Hill: Notes on Plants of the Chicago District 



But most of our introduced plants came to us from the west 

 or southwest. In 1897 Agropyron glaucuui R. & S. was found 

 well established in the dry sand at Clarke, Ind. Whether it 

 would prove as troublesome as the real Couch-grass, A, rcpcns, 



m 



of which it is considered a variety by some, remams to be seen 

 should it persist and spread. It was spreading thickly In soil 



Stipa spartca^ Calajnagroslis longifolia 



0> 



pectin 



Its subterranean stems did not seem as abundant or formidable as 

 those o{ A. repcns^'hut in richer cultivated fields might be different. 

 As the Blue-Joint or Blue-stem of the western stockman, highly 

 praised when it is said of it that *' no richer hay can be made 

 from anything known,'' it nu*ght have value as a grass for 

 sand dunes. HdiantJius pctiolaris Nutt., of the dry plains of the 

 wxst, is becoming frequent by railroads both east and west of the 

 city. It is quite ornamental along their roadbeds, blooming when 

 ■'but eight or ten inches high and rarely exceeding a couple of feet, 

 ■AUionia linearis also comes from w^est of the Mississippi and was 

 taken last summer from street sides at Morcran Park not far from 



the Rock Island railroad. In a ditch by the same railroad at 

 South Englewood inthe city is a patch o{ Bidcns involiicrata Brit- 

 ton, its large yellow flowers rather handsome. It comes into the 

 western part of Illinois where it may be native, though its range 

 is w^estward. It w^as not given in Patterson's catalogue in i8;6 

 and plainly seems to be adventive here. Coreopsis tinctoria Nutt 

 was likewise found in street-side lawns and parkw^ays at Morgan 

 Park, perhaps an escape from gardens, though it may have come 

 by the same route as the Allionia] being indigenous to the same 

 region. Plantago aristata Michx., a low plant with long, stout and 

 prominent spikes, w^hich are rather abundant, appears in the stiff 

 blue clay taken out of the Drainage Canal and on railway embank- 

 ments near by. It was doubtless discovered more than a century 



Michau'x *' in / 



in the autumn of 



1795, when he travelled in the southern part of the state, though 

 he makes no mention of the discovery in his journal. Dr. Mead 

 reported it from the vicinity of Quincy, farther north than Michaux 

 came. It is interesting to find that it has migrated to the neigh- 

 borhood of this city, flourishing under somewhat different con- 



