THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 15 



I grew up and went to school in Central Iowa, then came 

 west and have since lived in several interesting localities, among 

 them the top of Pike's peak. I have amused myself by col- 

 lecting and pressing every different plant I have found, and 

 have kept an accurate list of those from each locality. These 

 lists of names reveal many interesting facts. 



East of the mountain, where the trails and creeks meet 

 the railroads and highways from the East, is a meeting ground 

 for many species from widely separated places. In little wil- 

 low and Cottonwood copses, one will often find rare plants 

 from the mountains, — gilias, columbines, polemoniums, phace- 

 lias, asters, western glow, beard-tongue, and many more. 

 On the mesa lands above, troops the hosts of plains plants, — 

 yucca, prickly pear, false mallow, milk vetch, bush morning- 

 glory, and members of the primrose family. There were no 

 trees on the plains along the streams until the annual fires 

 set by the Indians ended. Then the trees crept up from the 

 valleys, the cane grass overcame the buffalo grass, and was 

 itself succeeded by a mat of blue-stem which remained until 

 the plow came. Weeds followed the wagons along the road 

 to Oregon which is still marked by a yellow blaze of sunflow- 

 ers, typical of the gold that lured the caravans which stamped 

 it on the prairie. Lance-leaved sage, brittle-weed, and wild 

 tomato dispute the territory in vegetable gardens, lantern- 

 weed (Lavauxia), wild poinsettia, and mealy- weed invade the 

 lawns, and dandelions and pigweeds flourish amazingly, but 

 only depauperate specimens of dog-fennel occur so far west. 

 Hollyhock, ox-eye daisy, double sneezewort, and cosmos oc- 

 cur, apparently growing wild, the last especially in such increas- 

 ing numbers and frequency that it seems in a fair way to 

 become naturalized in the vicinity of Colorado Springs. The 

 first specimens of Jim Hill mustard appeared in 1913, coming 

 in from the West where it was already a pest. 



The dominating feature of a Utah landscape is its Lom- 

 bardy poplars. Great close lines of them, veterans all, file 



