16 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



along the roads and the boundary Hnes, closing in to double 

 ranks along the sidewalks in the towns. Two other features 

 of plant distribution are w'orthy of note. One is the wealth 

 of the flora along the irrigating ditches, the other is the great 

 number of adventive plants and weeds that are more common 

 in the parts of the world that were earlier settled. Monkey- 

 flower, water cress, epilobium, water cactus {Seneciu), water 

 parsnip, and the mints occur in and along the ditches quite 

 into the towns. Blue vervain, sneezeweed, catnip, horse-mint, 

 nettle, asters, and the various mustards lend an Eastern air 

 that is sometimes most bizarre when contrasted with such 

 characteristically western plants as sage brush, torchw^eed, 

 gum-plant, and lupine : There are even weeds from the Old 

 World, — Lepidium perfoliatum, Sisyuibrimii irio, Malcolina, 

 and hare's ear, introduced presumably with sugar beet seed. 



In the Snake river valley the ditches are almost destitute 

 of wild plants. The banks are covered with grass, alfalfa, 

 and salt-brush. There are occasional bunches of sneezeweed, 

 and poison hemlock occurs, but the nati\c desert plants seem 

 Cjuite content not to dispute this territory with the invaders. 

 Of the fifty "worst weeds" listed by the Department of Agri- 

 culture, only fifteen occur in this locality and only six of them 

 in sufficient numbers to constitute a pest, while only two, the 

 Russian thistle and prickly lettuce, could properly be called 

 "worst weeds." 



While these observations are disconnected and perhaps 

 of little value alone, they are typical of similar facts that can 

 be gleamed from every locality and which are seldom found 

 in books. Until we cease waiting for scientists to write books 

 to reveal nature to us, and get busy ourselves all over the land 

 observing and recording just such apparently little things, 

 botanical literature will of necessity be only of very general 

 application. 



