172 BOTAXICAL GAZETTE. 



extended from the Red River of the North to Milk River and Fort 

 Cnster m Montana : 



"The llora of the country embraces a very respectable number of 

 plants, many of great botanical interest, and some of considerable 

 economic importance. Upward of seventy species were observed 

 and analyzed by the writer during the summer of 1878, a few of 

 which it was impossible to properly assign after a careful and search- 

 ing analysis, audit is believed that the creation of new genera (?) will 

 be necessary for them. Omitting the rarer and minor forms of plant- 

 life as uuessential to the present inquiry, it is regarded as sutficient 

 to allude briefly to the prevalent and characteristic growth of the 

 country. The forests fringing the water courses are constituted 

 mainly of Populus monilifcra^ Ait., sparingly intermixed with which 

 is found the Fraxinus viridis., Mx. A variety of Salix, with Cornus 

 stolon if era, Mx., is found growing rather abundantly along the an- 

 nuall.y submerged river banks. The bark of the latter is dried and 

 smoked by the Indians as a substitute for tobacco. The Primus T7r- 

 giniaiuu L. and the P. Americana, Marshall, are encountered chiefly 

 along the banks of ravines. The Shepherdia argentea, Nutt., is quite 

 common and bears an abundant crop of edible scarlet berries, intensely 

 acid, but rich in pectin, and capable of conversion into an excellent 

 article of jelly. Jltis cordifolia, Mx., frost grape, and Ampelopsis 

 quinquefolia., are iound chiefly among the forest of cottonwood. 

 Opuntia Missourien^^is, DC, is abundant, but dwarfed on the uplands. 

 Bosa blanda^i Ait., forms dense thickets along the banks of many 

 streams, attaining a height of ten or twelve feet in some instances. 

 The plants, popularly designated as weeds, that are worthy of notice, 

 either on account of their abundance or show}^ petals, are Grindelia 

 sejnarrosa, Dunal, three varieties of Ambrosia., Plelianthus annims (f), 

 Polygonum avicuJare, various species of (Enothera, Anemone Virgini- 

 ana^ various species of Aster and many others. A species of the 

 Composite grows very abundantly throughout this entire section, and 

 is erroneously called wild sage. Botanically it is the western mug- 

 wort, Artemisia Lndoviciana, Nutt., var. Jatifolia. It and A. frigida 

 are much valued by the Indians, I am informed, in the treatment of 

 fevers, gonorrhea, etc. They use it in the form of decoctions. The 

 buffalo grass {Bucldoe dactyloides) is abundant throughout the region. 

 Valuable as a nutritious fodder, it is of some interest scientifically as 

 one of the rare examples of a dioecious grass, its male and female 

 flowers differing so widely in appearance that botanists for a long 

 time regarded them as representatives of different genera." 



