The American Botanist 



VOL. XVIII JOLIET, ILL., FEBRUARY, 1912 No. 1 



t/ laonden if the sap is stinr'ing yet, 

 *jfijuintrt/ hinds nre dreaming of a mate, 

 %Jf frozen snoivdrops feel as yet the sun, 

 ■^Ind crocus fires are kindling one 6y one? 



iSing, SrioSin, sing/ 

 kJ am still sore in dovbt concerning spring. 



— Christina Rossetti. 



SOME DAKOTA WILD FLOWERS. 



By H. Tullsen. 



THAT Elysian region, the country of the Great Plains, is, 

 when summer reigns, one of the most attractive flower- 

 kirtled regions in this world. In the Pine Ridge territory 

 of South Dakota, within sight of the Black Hills, w^iich, in 

 clear weather, appear just above the far northwestern horizon, 

 an immense tract of land has been set apart as an Indian re- 

 servation, and, in consequence, much of the district still con- 

 tinues in all its virgin grandeur. The beds of the streams, 

 nearly all of which discharge their waters into the "Maki 

 Zita," or Big White River, lie very far below the general sur- 

 face of the surrounding country and their flood-plains are, in 

 the abrupt valleys, mostly covered with decidous trees and 

 shrubs. A few water-courses next the sand-hills on the south, 

 however, meander through broader, level tracts that partake of 

 the nature of swamps and wet meadows. 



Here in the alluvial soil there is of course a vegetation 

 such as is characteristic of well-watered flats in general. 

 Clinging to the banks at a moderate elevation we find such 

 shrubs as the skunk-bush and buffalo-berry, while in the v^'ay 



