106 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



therefore, ia this instance, change the comoaonly received 

 name. Instead of Cornuvia circumscissa (Wallr.) R., we shall 

 say Oplnotheca cUrysospenna Currey, unless we can show that 

 Wallroth actually described the same thing, when, of course, 

 we should write Ophiotheca circumscissa (Wallr.), followed by the 

 name of the authoi- who first established the combination, in 

 this case, Masste. 



NOTES ON THE FLORA OP WESTERN IOWA. 



BY L. H. PAMMEL. 



The tijira of iaa lo^ss in western loA'a is unique, in many 

 respects. While it may be said that many parts of the state 

 have a typical prairie flora, certain species being common from 

 Texas to British America, east to Wisconsin, Illinois and 

 Indiana, only occasionally do we find plants of the great plains 

 in our own state. Western species are somewhat unequally 

 distributed in our state; they occupy a larger area in north- 

 western Iowa than in southern and western. In northern 

 Iowa a few prominent types appear, as in Emmet county. Of 

 these I may mention Bouteloua oUgostachya, Agropyrum caninum, 

 A. caesium, Grindelia squarrosa, Hcliantlnis Blaximiliani. The 

 latter is not, however, a typical western plant, though intro- 

 duced in central Iowa. It crosses our western border on the 

 loess and extends south to Texas. 



The loess of western Iowa is peculiar so far as the iiora is 

 concerned, nothing like it in Iowa. A number of American 

 writers have written upon the peculiarities of its plant life. B. 

 F. Bush" has given us a complete catalogue of the flora of 

 northwestern Missouri. 



A. S. Hitchcock' has reported a few of the plants occurring 

 near Sioux City, and in general touches on the il^ra of western 

 Iowa. 



J. W. McGee considers the loess flora of northeastern Iowa. 

 The two regions are however not similar from a botanical 

 standpoint. It may be well to speak of the formation in this 



iNotes on the mound flora of Atchison county, Miss iuri. Reprint, Sixth Ann. Rep. 

 Missouri Botanical Garden, 1895, pp. 121-134. 



■'Notes on the flora of Iowa, Bot. Gazette'Vol. XIV, p. 127 



