54 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



of the tuber cut off, in which case the tuber throws up a new stem from an 

 almost invisible eye. The leaves, which may be called radical, are mostly 

 at the top of the subterranean stem, and are fewer, shorter, and not so deeply 

 gashed as dandelion leaves. The juice is milky, like lettuce. The pappus 

 is not fiery red, as might be supposed from the name, but a tawny white. The 

 stem has two or three scales with dormant buds between the leaves and the 

 tuber; the tuber has several almost invisible eyes. 



Other flowers blooming at the same time are Baptisia australis, with its 

 coarse-looking blue flowers, nearly always gnawed by insects; CEnothera 

 serrulata, a half-shrubby species, with large, crumpled petals; Psoralea argo- 

 phylla and Jloribunda ; P. cuspidata, with a large inflated calyx ; Aplopappua 

 spinulosus; Asdepias speeiosa; Glyeyrrhiza lepidota ; Schrankia uncinata, the 

 wonderful and very fragrant sensitive brier; and many others equally inter- 

 esting. Yarrow is common. 



A feature in this western country is the very showy and really splendid 

 evening primrose ( CEnothera grandiflora). It opens at a time of day when 

 most other flowers are closed for the night, and next morning has lost its 

 brilliant color; otherwise it would be admirable. Spots that in the spring 

 were all pink and blue and white with anemones and wild onions, in May are 

 purple all day with spiderworts, and yellow all night with evening primroses. 



Nearly everywhere on dry prairie, and very abundant on barren prairies, 

 in northern Barton and Rush, grows the smokeweed {Plantago giiaphaloides) , 

 with spikes eight inches high, of minute white flowers. Growing alone on 

 barren hillsides, it gives the land a bluish-gray or smoky appearance; and 

 further north and west, where it grows more abundantly, it is said to have 

 been the cause of the name of the Smoky Hill. 



Toward the close of the month the pincushion cactus {Mamillaria ccespiiosa) 

 opens its blossoms. The petals vary from straw color to amber. The stigmas 

 are green. Likewise the red pincushion cactus {M. vivipara) may be found 

 in bloom. The petals vary from a pale pink to a bright red. The stigmas 

 are red, pink, or pure white — never green. The plant, when not in blos- 

 som, may easily be distinguished from the yellow cactus, by its having sev- 

 eral divergent brown spines at the end of the tubercles, in addition to the 

 circle of white spines. The fruit, too, is green when ripe, while that of the 

 straw-colored species is red. Otherwise they are much alike. 



A charming little bloomer in dry situations is Polygala alba, ten inches 

 high, in dense tufts of slender stems, covered with small, white, oddly-shaped 

 flowers, that last till the seed is half ripe. 



On dry, barren rocks and bluffs may be seen in its luxuriance Yucca angus- 

 tifolia, otherwise called "soap-root," "Spanish dagger," etc. Its numerous 

 long, narrow, evergreen leaves are charming in the winter when everything 

 else has turned brown. They are frequently used by hunters as cords to 

 hang up meat. The roots are large and very long. They are believed to 

 have burst rocks asunder by constant growing pressure. 



