BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 69 



the earlier stages of their growth, the quick transition from the 

 informality of the fontier village to the stiff and pretentious urban 

 airs of the prosperous manufacturing and trading town, is not more 

 remarkable than the complete change which takes place in the 

 vegetation covering the vacant lots, rubbish heaps and waste places 

 of "these communities. I remember well, for instance, how here in 

 Rockford, 111., say twenty years ago, the indigenous plants of the 

 prairie and oak-opening sprang up on every side in close proximity 

 to the beaten paths of busy men. The industrious young botanist, 

 collecting for exchange, found his only limitations in the quantity 

 of driers he possessed, and the amount of time, energy and discre- 

 tion he could bring to the work of using them well. Now we must 

 go miles out into the country for material and count ourselves for- 

 tunate, even then, if the little vestige of the native flora which last 

 season afforded us a dozen desirable specimens has not since been 

 swept away by the plow; while in the central portion of the city 

 scarcely a single native species remains to dispute _ possession with 

 street weeds, mostly of European descent and training. 



Lactuca scariola, L., which has spread rapidly over the country 

 along the line of railroads, was limited, with us, for a few years, to 

 a single patch on the embankment east of the station-house, but 

 has now been carried all over the city and out into the country 

 even, by mud containing seeds adhering to carriage wheels. It 

 threatens to become a troublesome weed, especially in gravel walks. 

 Arnarantus blitoides, Watson, also brought in by the railroad (but 

 from the west instead of the east), is just gaining a foothold. It 

 takes kindly to sandy, sunny slopes, and spreads over the ground in 

 dense, lusty patches very like Purslane. 



The particular occasion for this note, however, is to record— for 

 the first time I believe— the introduction of Chenopodium Berlan- 

 dieri, Moq., in the states east ot the Mississippi and north of the 

 Ohio. This is found, not in patches here and there, but scattered ev- 

 erywhere over vacant lots, under walls and along residence streets, 

 keeping . company with Chenopodium glaucum, Artemisia biennis 

 and the omnipresent Atriplex; but unlike the nearly allied C. album, 

 showing no tendency to intrude as a weed in cultivated grounds. A 

 rather delicate species — for a pigweed — rarely exceeding 18 inches 

 in height, diffusely branched and usually (when not crowded) de- 

 clining. From its general diffusion the inference is plain that the 

 importation took place years ago, and it seems very strange that 

 a plant showing such complete adaptation to the environment (it is 

 as much at home in town as C. urbicum itself) should not have been 

 reported elsewhere. I am at a loss, indeed, to frame any conjecture 

 as to how it got here — for instance, by seeds in mud sticking to the 

 feet of Texas cattle— which does not involve the puzzling question, 

 then why not all along between St. Louis and Chicago as well ? I 

 may as well mention, in conclusion, the fact that in some most un- 

 accountable way, Kochiaseoparia, Schrad., has been turned loose in 



