THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 37 



than other regions when once they begin. The desert not only 

 blossoms like the rose but beats the rose to it. It may be with 

 a square mile of violets, an endless cloud of lupines, the yellow 

 suns of the rock-rose, and Agoseris or long banks of hud- 

 sonia or the golden aster, but in any event the result is to out- 

 shine other regions. 



Next to the sand-barrens in the matter of flowers come 

 t*he prairies. At certain seasons they crowd the barrens close 

 for supremacy. It is not given to every botanizer to have easy 

 access to both regions but some are so fortunate. A very few 

 miles from where this is written, an arm of the true prairie 

 extends eastward over the Niagara limestone until it en- 

 counters the sand dunes at the southern end of lake Michigan, 

 bringing hydrophytes, mesophytes and xerophytes into close 

 juxtaposition. Here in certain directions the flora changes 

 more in going five miles than it would in going five hundred 

 miles in other regions. Since both prairie and barren are of 

 low altitude many of the flowers of mountain and ravine are 

 absent, but they can well be spared in view of the other at- 

 tractions which the region affords. 



Joliet, III. 



THE FLOWERING RASPBERRY. 



By Dr. W. W. Bailey. 



I T is the experience of every wood-lover that the thought of 

 * certain plants is potent to recall special localities upon 

 which the mind loves to dwell. In turning over the sheets 

 of his herbarium, the attention of the botanist is always ar- 

 rested by the portrait of some favorite plant, "the shy Lin- 

 naea" perhaps, or the alpine sandwort, and at once he is borne 

 into dreamland as by the magician's carpet. Home objects 

 vanish ; he is once more in deep odorous woods or well above 

 the clouds upon a New England mountain top. 



