120 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



will be surprised to learn how clearly most trees can be distin- 

 guished in this way. If you do not know the tree in the first 

 place, you can get help from most of the many popular tree 

 books, or, better yet, you can watch the trees next season after 

 the leaves appear. 



If all towns were like Nauvoo, Illinois, botanizing would 

 be a very easy matter. Last summer Mr. H. N. Patterson and 

 the editor spent about three hours wandering about the sleepy 

 old place, and in that time recognized 116 species of plants 

 growing without cultivation. More that that might be easily 

 found in a three-hour walk across the country, over a variety 

 of situations, but that is a pretty good number to be growing 

 along the town streets. Of the number, 59, or one more than 

 half, were introduced species. 



In this department scientific names will hereafter follow 

 the usage of the Vienna Code of nomenclature, as exemplified 

 in the new seventh edition of Gray's Manual. The editor can 

 not personally agree with every principle of that code, but it 

 seems apparent that the best way out of our nomenclatorial 

 difficulties is the adoption of some such general system. 



Some Late Flowers, 1908. — The thirty-first of October 

 found me among the dunes north of Waukegan, Illinois. The 

 part south of the pest-house road was a desolate waste, burned 

 over during the early part of the month. The only plants that 

 withstood the burning were the dwarf cedar (Juniperus hori- 

 zontaUs) and the bearberry {Arctostaphylos iiva-ursi) both of 

 which are plants which form dense mats at the surface of the 

 ground. Further north in the unburnt land on the ridges were 

 the tall gaunt stalks of the blazing stars (Liatris scariosa and 



