WILD LETTUCE 



35 



anywhere in the region east of the Alleghany 

 mountains. 



Although the plant did not find an especial- 

 ly congenial soil and climate when it landed 

 upon our shores in its emigration venture, 

 3^et it was able to maintain itself and to 

 spread. In the course of fifteen years it had 

 penetrated into the Mississippi valley, prob- 

 ably making the longer distances as the hobo 

 travels, by clinging to freight trains, for it is 

 first recorded as seen in St. Louis in 1877. It 

 was afterward detected in Toledo, Chicago, 

 St. Paul and other cities. In three or four 



Fig. 4. — Map of the distfibution of wild lettuce, as reported 

 to the U. S. Department of Agriculture up to October, 1895. 

 The comparative rarity of the weed in the Atlantic states, 

 where first introduced, and its abundance in the central states, 

 are conspicuously shown. (After Dewey.) 



years it was an abundant weed in almost 

 every large city of the central west. At the 



Fifteen years 

 of conquest 



