98 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN BULLETIN 
from a survey of this particular portion of the Garden, 
where only native plants are growing. This applies not 
alone to the trees and shrubs, but also to the herbaceous 
plants around the borders. 
The North American tract is easily reached from the rose 
garden. Passing south from the latter and immediately 
west of the main office building, the beginning of the walk 
leading around the tract is reached. A small lake to the 
right presents a rather picturesque appearance with the 
growth of aquatics along its borders and upon its surface. 
While they appear more or less wild, they have all been 
sent with a purpose, representing the group of plants 
nown to the botanist as the Monocotyledons, 1. e., plants 
with certain similarities in flower, stem, and leaf structure 
that pace them naturally in a group by themselves. It is 
significant that the majority of the plants in the native flora 
belonging to this class are inhabitants of moist or decidedly 
wet situations, and a lake of the above nature therefore forms 
the logical center about which to group them. 
This same community of characteristics is the basis of the 
grouping of the plants all through this tract, and as one 
passes along the walk to the south of the small stream and 
chain of pools, one faces a constantly changing flora. In 
botanical terms the flora is becoming more complex as we 
proceed. The beginnings of new groups are indicated by 
small labels bearing the common and scientific names, and 
are placed in plain view at the edges of the walks. 
A copy of Gray’s Manual of Botany, sixth edition, will 
be of great service to a person visiting this section, for a 
t many of the plants listed in the manual are growing 
in the tract and, moreover, are arranged in the same order, 
proceeding westward, as in the manual itself. Occasionally 
an herbaceous plant will be found which is not strictly a 
native of North America, but the number of these is so 
small that they do not disturb the native appearance of the 
plantations. 5 
THE RED SUNFLOWER. 
_The Garden is unusually fortunate in being able to ex- 
hibit at the shes time an entirely new variety of sun- 
flower—the “Red Sunflower.” It is through the kindness 
of Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell, of the University of Colorado, 
that the Garden is enjoying this privilege, and it is safe to 
