216 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



380. These beautiful plants were objects of admiration to every one 

 who visited the garden. To secure a plant three feet high, and 

 branched out like a small tree, with large glaucous leaves fringed 

 with yellow spines, and bearing thirty or forty large white flowers, 

 each four inches in diameter, is worth not a little extra effort. Evening 

 aster might well be considered the queen of the Kansas prairie flow- 

 ers. I secured fifty roots of this plant from Clark, Kearny and Rooks 

 counties. Only one specimen lived. This made as large and healthy 

 a plant as I ever saw on the plains. It commenced blooming on the 

 10th of August and continued until the 15th of September, pro- 

 ducing 178 flowers in all, and having as many as thirty-five at one 

 time. The flowers are four to five inches in diameter, of a creamy- 

 white color, and very fragrant. The plant is very punctual in its actions. 

 The flowers begin opening about twenty minutes past six o'clock in 

 the evening and in ten minutes are open wide. The second evening 

 these blossoms open ten minutes earlier than the new ones. Occa- 

 sionally they will open a third time. They always close between 

 twelve and one o'clock at night. The plant is a luxury, and worth 

 any reasonable effort to secure. 



No attention need be paid to the soil from which plants are taken. 

 The fact that a flower is found growing in a certain place does not 

 necessarily prove that it is growing in the best place. It may be 

 growing there because it has been crowded out of a better place. 



It is marvelous how some plants respond to a little care. It is al- 

 ways advisable to use plenty of sand, and a little fertilizer may be 

 employed to advantage ; but, generally, fertilizers should be used 

 sparingly. There were in my garden plants from the swamps along 

 the Kaw river, from deep woodlands, from fertile meadows, from the 

 rocky bluffs of Chase county, from the saline marshes on the Arkan- 

 sas, from the sandy plains of the southwest, and from the chalk hills 

 of the northwest — all growing side by side in the same soil. And 

 each one seemed to be perfectly at home ; in fact, many of them grew 

 better than in their wild condition. 



An ideal garden would be one in which a pond and a rockery had 

 a place. A rockery is more essential and is more available in most 

 localities. On it many low plants can be grown to advantage that 

 are otherwise undesirable ; and many of those that can be grown on 

 level culture show better on a rockery. 



The best time, of course, to move plants is while they are dormant ; 

 but with proper care they may be moved at any time. When plants 

 are moved in the summer, it is necessary to prune the tops severely; 

 and special care should be taken to firm the soil about the roots. 

 When convenient, it is advisable to take the plants up in a lump of 



