THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 67 



ginger. Even typical marsh plants like the skunk's cabbage 

 and marsh marigold are absent. All these, and many more 

 are abundant on the moraines but in all the years that they 

 have grown there they do not seem ever to have ventured out 

 upon the plain. Most of these have gone out of flower on the 

 moraine before flowers of any kind appear on the plain. In- 

 deed the region has no early spring flora. While buds are 

 opening and green shoots springing in abundance elsewhere, 

 the plain lies flowerless and passive, reminding one of the en- 

 virons of New Orleans under similar circumstances. The first 

 flov/er to appear in spring is the cosmopolitan dandelion fol- 

 lowed soon by the mouse-ear plantain and Carex Pennsylvan- 

 ica. For a long time these are the only blossoms to be found, but 

 as they fade, the wild strawberry and one of the blue violets 

 cover the ground with their blended colors. 



The alliance of the flora is plainly with that of the prairie. 

 This is more noticeable in autumn when sunflowers, blazing 

 stars, compass plants, golden-rods, rudbeckias, asters, and other 

 characteristicafly prairie plants monopolize the soil, but the 

 likeness is noticeable even in spring in the occurrence of such 

 plants as the shooting star, downy phlox, orange puccoon, 

 Indian plantain, tall phlox and prairie dock. Another feature 

 characteristic of the prairie is the abundance of such flowers as 

 occur at all. When any species blooms, it is likely to become 

 the most conspicuous thing in the landscape. For a time it 

 has the center of the stage and none can fail to note it. The 

 squaw weed (Senecio) that elsewhere may appear in scattered 

 bunches, here covers square miles with a solid spread of yellow 

 that no eastern field of butter-cups can surpass. In another 

 field a yellow of lighter hue interspersed with flecks of 

 orange and scarlet show where the painted cup flour- 

 ishes. Soon these disappear and are succeeded by a wide- 

 spread rosy tint which heralds the blooming season of the 

 tall phlox. In such a region as this violets of several species 

 flourish. The lance-leaved violet forms compact beds, covering 



