BOtANiCAL GAZETTE. % 



glance over this catalogue will show the many good things such localities have given 

 to our author. It is to be regretted that Dr. Schneck's time is so fully occupied that he 

 cannot keep on hand a stock of duplicates for exchange. A striking feature of the 

 flora of this region is the abundance of southern types. Up this low valley, running 

 nearly north and south, many i)lants have found their way which one would scarcely ex- 

 pect to meet except in a more decidedly southern flora. These low rich bottoms have 

 yielded such monsters in growth; especially among the climbers, that one is reminded of 

 a South American jungle. Just hear Dr. Schneck's testimony on this subject. " Here I 

 have found a grape vine ( FzY?.s Zr(f(!//'«.sr«), thirty-two inches in circumference, and near 

 one hundred and fifty feet long, hanging from the massive t)ranches of a lofty tree, ap- 

 pearing as if a monstrous cable suspended from the overhanging sky ; Trumpet Vine 

 {Teaoma r/uUcans), thirty -eight and one-half inches in circumference, and climbing to 

 the topmost branches of a tall tree, decorating it from root to top with a profusion of its 

 foliage and orange-red trumpet shaped flowers; Cross Vine (Bigtionid cdpreohtta), 

 ascending in a straight line the massive shaft of an oak, elm, or black walnut, to the 

 heiglit of seventy-five feet, its green, scarlet tinged foliage of winter persisting until late 

 spring; Single-seed Cucumber {Siryos (in.fjuhUus), matting all bushes and vegetation, 

 within ten feet of its root, into a thicket, or climbing up a neighboring tree to the dis- 

 tance of sixty-three feet; and in one instance, six climbing plants {Siailax rottindifolia, 

 Men ispermum Cdmidcnxe, Ainpeloptiis qaiiiqucfolia^ Bigium in cnpreoldid^ Vitis cordif alius y 

 Aristdlochia tdiiientond)^ supporting themselves on the body and branches of one small 

 American Elm." The author also gives us the names of several species which he 

 thinks are disappearing with advancing civilization and will eventually have to be 

 stricken from the flora of the Lower Wabash. The princijjal ones are Cypripedium 

 candiduin and pxii-cijldrum, Aletrifs fdrinosct, Liliudi PhilddelplLirunb and siiperbiim, 

 Scilla Fraseri, OpuiitUh Rafliiesqidi, and Mertensia Virginica. Tlie author also states 

 that as prairies were converted into fields the annual fires were soon stopped and as a 

 consequence, in a few years a thick growth of young trees has sprung up, a view 

 which, although it may be correct for a few localities, Prof. J. D. Whitney in recent 

 numbers of the American Naturalist teaches us must be scouted as accounting for the 

 general distribution of the prairie regions. Of courise it would be tedious and useless 

 to try to enumerate all the interesting plants listed in this catalogue and we can only 

 refer those interested on the subject to the State publication in which this report oc- 

 curs.— J. M. C. 



Some Iowa Plants. — At the suggestion of friends, in the interest of science, I 

 send 3'ou the following names to ])c added to the Catalogue of Iowa plants. To sim- 

 plify, we class them l)y the yeai-s in which they were discovered, 



187G. To begin, let us note, in the interest of comparative botanical science and 

 the geographical distribution of plants, that those marked with a star(*) do not occur 

 in Prof. Aughey's Catalogue of Nebraska jilants, in the rarity and number of which we 

 may feel a certain slate pride. I have specimens of all named, and many to spare in 

 most cases. 



Trifdliiiii/ i'('Jli'j'dtd*,L.,. Time 20111, old cliaiincl of Cedar River, at the bridge five 

 miles above Cedar Rapids, perhaps floated down from Minnesota. 



(EiKifhfi'ii pmmld,*, L., 20th June, railroad grade, and dry, steep banks, near the 

 above locality. * .■ 



Penatetidid dlhidux, Nutt, 2nth June, near water at tiie liase of the liigh railroad 

 grade, one mile above Cedar Rapids. Ti-uly fine and rare. 



FrKlivhid Flariddtid, Moijuin, 13lli September, street near the river. Cedar Rapids.* 

 Quite rare. 



To which I may add an introduced plant found by Prof ^McAfee on tiie College 

 grounds, />^/^/.v 'v;r//7Vw//(////,.s,* L. How introduced we can only imagine. 



