52 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



high. The flowers have the odor of, aud much resemble, garden pinks, though 

 care in handling is necessary, so as not to crush the plants, or the odor in- 

 stantly changes. These have terete, hollow leaves. Later, a taller kind, twice 

 the height, with white flowers and flat, carinate leaves, appears. These have 

 not the pleasant pinky odor of the others; but the garlicky odor is stronger. 

 There is a variety intermediate in height between these two, with white and 

 pink striate petals, and semi-terete leaves, channeled on the upper side. 



These flowers, gathered into a bouquet, are almost everlasting in form and 

 color, and have an everlasting smell, too. There is a tall species, eighteen 

 inches high, in moist places, that has bulbiferous umbels. These onions all 

 have reticulated, fibrous bulbs. Cows are fond of the tops in spring, to the 

 detriment of the butter. The bulbs form a large part of the food of the 

 prairie squirrel. The low pink variety is worth cultivating, and would 

 make a very pretty border in a flower garden early in spring. 



On dry hills may be found abundance of Sophora sericea, a foot high, with 

 its beautiful, whitish-green, silky, pinnate leaves, aud terminal racemes of 

 yellow pea-blossoms, and handsome, lead-colored calyxes. 



In wet buffalo-wallows, and other wettish holes, there is a biennial species 

 of evening primrose (Oenothera triloba), growing low to the earth, with many 

 runcinate-pinnatisect leaves, about like those of a dandelion, and with rhomb- 

 shaped yellow flowers, having a calyx tube three or four inches in length. 

 When the seed is ripe and the leaves have fallen, the very short stem is en- 

 tirely covered with the sessile, four-cornered capsules, as close as they can be 

 crowded together. It much resembles, in size, shape and color, an old, over- 

 grown pine cone, 



A very showy species of trailing verbena is in blossom very early in May, 

 It makes a pretty bed. 



Early in May, the mallows all come into bloom. The scarlet mallow 

 {Malvastrum coccineum) grows very abundantly nearly everywhere, on erect 

 stems, ten inches high, and several to many blossoms open at the same time 

 on each stem. These are really pretty flowers in a bouquet, and make a very 

 pretty bed, when growing close together. 



The crimson mallow (^CalUrrhoe involucrata) is one of the most showy flow- 

 ers growing on the prairie. They are a bright crimson, with white centers, 

 like a portulaca, and change to purple in drying. I have found them quite 

 double. In certain spots they are to be found in great abundance, continu- 

 ing to bloom all summer. The root is perennial, one to two or more inches 

 in diameter, abounding in mucilage, and is eaten by Indians. 



Another mallow (also a Callirrhoe) grows in damp places, on a weak stem 

 eighteen inches high, and has white or pinkish petals, often fringed. The 

 lower leaves are triangular, almost entire, a little above they are strongly 

 crenate, and the upper leaves, still triangular in outline, are three to seven- 

 parted, and the segments variously lobed and cle'ft. 



Among dry rocks grows a very interesting little heath-like composite 



