KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. • 53 



(Diplopappus ericoides), three inches high, oue of the earliest composites to 

 bloom. 



Poa compressa, a species of blue-grass, is found in abundance along water- 

 courses. 



Buchloe dactyloides, the famous buifalo grass of the plains, otherwise called 

 curly or summer mesquite, is in full bloom by the middle of May. The 

 staminate blossoms, with their orange anthers, are quite noticeable as they 

 stand four or five inches high, but the pistillate blossoms are hidden under 

 the grass, about one to two inches high, and must be sought attentively to 

 be found, and may then be found in abundance. It is remarkable, the pro- 

 vision made for this grass to withstand drouth. I have traced the roots in a 

 new well to a depth of full fifteen feet from the surface, reaching quite down 

 to that stratum of earth seldom aflfected by summer heat. 



Two species of pentstemon, twelve to eighteen inches, found in very dry 

 sand-hills, both with very glaucous, waxy-looking, entire leaves, one with 

 handsome, white or pinkish blossoms, the other with large, beautiful, blue 

 blossoms. I have not succeeded in drying any of them without spoiling the 

 color of the leaves. 



Ceanothus Americanus, "red-root" or Jersey tea, is an abundant shrub in 

 similar situations. If this plant was not a favorite in revolutionary times, 

 its appearance deceives, for each of the petals, which rises on a little claw, 

 tries to cover the pistil, and is shaped just like Israel Putnam's three-cornered 

 hat of old. 



About the middle of the month, the handsome spiderwort {Tradescaniia 

 Virginica) comes into bloom. It is abundant everywhere, and is one of the 

 most noticeable flowers of the prairies. The flowers vary, through all shades 

 of purple, from a very pale blue to a bright rose color. The extremes are 

 not often found, and pure white ones are rarely found, though white ones 

 with pink stamens sometimes appear. I have found them quite double. In 

 one case a single flower had eight petals and sixteen stamens. They are, no 

 doubt, capable of much improvement by cultivation. 



On ground broken by gophers, and on new "breaking," we find the elegant 

 little Gaura coccinea, ten or twelve inches high. Its flowers, when they first 

 open, are white, soon change to rose color, and finally to scarlet before fad- 

 ing. It is one of the very few prairie flowers that is pleasantly fragrant. 



About the 20th of May, on dry hillsides, I find plenty of Pyrrhopappus 

 grandiflorus, (I know of no shorter name,) with brilliant yellow, dandelion- 

 like flowers, two inches across, which are rendered more showy by contrast 

 with the black anthers. The flower is single, on a solid, striate, one-bracted 

 scape, rising from a radical stem, which in turn rises from a small, whitish, 

 spongy tuber, three or four inches deep in the ground. I have never seen 

 but one stem from one tuber; but frequently the stem is branched at or be- 

 low the surface of the earth, and several scapes may arise in succession, each 

 bearing oue head. Frequently the stem may be destroyed, or even the top 



