74 THE AiMERICAN BOTANIST. 



buried some 6 to 10 inches below the soil. It took quite an ef- 

 fort to get it out, but I have roots of all three plants growing 

 in my garden. They will, no doubt, all fruit with me. They 

 are all very interesting and might be improved by crossing and 

 made still more useful. Some study has been given the Ji- 

 comilla by a Mexican Botanist of Chihuahua, Dr. Hernandez. 

 After collecting many other plants along the route, we came 

 into the Rancharia Mountains and about the first thing of in- 

 terest, after a good feast on the ripe fruit of Cercits stramincits, 

 which grows in great abundance there, we came upon a part of 

 the mountain where large areas were so well covered with 

 Selaginella lepidophylla that bushels could be gathered. We 

 then sat down to a lunch of tortillas, beans, meat and cold cof- 

 fee and then returned to the ranch, killing a rattler on the way. 



A NEW SPECIES OF PHLOX. 



By Willard N. Clute and James H. Ferriss. 



AMONG the flowers of late spring that make the prairies 

 and woodlands of northeastern Illinois a riot of color, 

 four species of phlox are conspicuous. The well-known ^weec 

 William (PJiIox divaricata) is first to appear, its favorite haunt 

 being the moist open woods where it thrives in spite of the an- 

 nual cropping by cattle. For long distances it spreads among 

 the trees in unbroken sheets of purplish bloom and it may even 

 venture into the open fields where, however, it comes into com- 

 petition with another species. This latter species is the downy 

 phlox (P. pilosa) a characteristically prairie species with small 

 clusters of pink flowers that are familiar features of open road- 

 sides, railway embankments and sandy barrens but show no 

 tendency to invade the woodlands. Phlox divaricata begins to 

 bloom about the middle of April, varying somewhat according 

 to season, and pilosa usually appears about three weeks later. 



Late in June, more than a month after divaricata has 

 ceased blooming and a safe distance behind the flowering sea- 



