Forty-seventh Aiitiual Meeting. 2-5 



\vhich was in the center of the street, and laid it on one side, 

 ^ust below the cable of the electric light where both can be 

 reached in a few minutes without tearing up the pavement. 

 We are using the mazda light, and \vi]l soon have them 

 changed to the tungsten. I have never heard any one com- 

 plain about this civic improvement. 



The next paper, No. 44, was by Miss Meeker, subject, 

 "Echinacea." or "Braunesia." 



Miss Meeker said : ''Sometime about Februarj- 15 Doctor 

 SajTe asked me if I would send cuttings or seeds of the plant 

 listed as Echinacea, and immediately I went out to a quarrj* 

 close to the city limits and found it, but it was not easy to 

 dig. and I did not get very satisfactory roots. The plants of 

 a number of last season's growth had branches, and the seeds 

 were just ready to drop, and the next day I sent the gentle- 

 man the plant and a package of seeds and the roots. WTien 

 Doctor SajTe presented it to the Academy I remembered we 

 did not have that species at all where I grew up : that it is a 

 western plant, and I should have gone back for more of it, 

 determined the species and written a paper about it as sug- 

 gested by Doctor Sa\Te. The seed shatters out in the fall and 

 comes up in the spring, or waits a year. Mr. Bartholomew 

 says that the plant grows in the medical botanical gardens in 

 Washington and has an understood commercial value. Doctor 

 Mc\Miarf brought me a book which stated that the western 

 Kansas people invariably called it 'nigger-head.' My aunt, 

 who is a botanist, called it *hedge-hog flower.* It is also called 

 "the Kansas daisy.* 'black Sampson.* It is used sucessfully 

 as an antidote to rattlesnake poison.** 



Prof. J. E. Todd's paper. Xo. 31. "The Kaw River Lake.'* 

 was next taken up. Professor Todd announced that his paper 

 was as yet incomplete, but from a large map on the waU he 

 illustrated how the lake is located, and he referred to our late 

 honored member. Prof. B. B. Smj'the. whose papers flrst 

 drew his attention to this subject. This old glacial lake has 

 ■scattered boulders at least as far north as Manhattan, as re- 

 ported by Mr. Robert Hay. and they are from 1'25 to 150 feet 

 above the present level of the Kansas river. The layers of 

 chert, gravel, boulders and silt are particularly well shown 

 in a channel which extends from the northeastern part of 

 Manhattan northward and comes out crossing the lake and 

 Blue some two or three miles north of Manhattan. 



