BIOLOGICAL PAPERS. 205 



SOME VARIATIONS AMONG SOME KANSAS WILD 

 FLOWERS. 



By F. F. Cebvecceoe, Onaga. 

 Read before the Academy at Topeka, December 29, 1904, 



^"^HERE is a growing disposition on the part of individuals and 

 -*~ institutions to attempt the preservation and propagation of our 

 useful, or otherwise desirable, native plants, in view of the almost cer- 

 tain extermination of many of the innocuous species due to the en- 

 larged area brought under cultivation or put to use as pasture on 

 account of the increase of our population. 



Mrs. Oliver, at Belmont, N. Y., has set aside a tract of land for a 

 plant preserve in that state, where the heart-endearing flowers that 

 are rapidly disappearing may be preserved ; and the United States 

 government, through its Department of Agriculture, has taken the 

 matter in hand and established plant-propagating gardens in connec- 

 tion with its Pacific coast laboratory, at Santa Ana, Cal., where all 

 useful, beautiful or otherwise desirable plants, from all parts of the 

 world, may be preserved and propagated. Nearer home we have a 

 number of individuals interested in floriculture who have taken upon 

 themselves the preservation of rare or beautiful species of our native 

 flora. It is to these latter, more especially, that this article is dedi- 

 cated, and it is hoped it may suggest search for rare specimens that 

 occasionally may be found, but that are not known to exist, or are 

 rarely seen. 



Most people would think, on looking over a field of any of our 

 common wild flowers, that the prevailing color, form or other quality 

 usually seen at first glance are the only ones peculiar to each species, 

 but on looking closer one will occasionally discover a plant differing 

 in color or form of flower, shape or size of leaf, or height or habit of 

 growth from the bulk of the species. Notes used in the preparation 

 of this paper have been kindly contributed by B. B. Smyth and 

 by Grace R, Meeker, to whom grateful acknowledgments are due. 

 Some of the variations seen by Professor Smyth have been recorded 

 in his "Check-list of Kansas Plants," August, 1892, and are again re- 

 corded here. 

 Anemone Carolinians Walter. Professor Smyth has seen plants of this species 



bearing flowers of all shades of color from pure white to deep purplish, 

 Oxalis violacea L, Miss Meeker reports having a plant of this pretty species in 

 her garden bearing white flowers instead of the purplish-pink, the color 

 usually seen. A white-blooming variety is also mentioned ia Professor 

 Castle's list of Franklin county plants, and Professor Smyth records the find- 

 ing of the same by Miss Minnie Blake, at Highland. - 



