762 WEED FLORA OF IOWA 



vated and waste ground, rather local." This weed was common in 

 Texas in 1888 and local in a good many counties in Iowa in 1909. 

 In Iowa it has been reported as follows : Fayette, 1894 (Bruce 

 Fink) ; Winterset, 1895 (G. W. Carver) ; Waterloo, 1904 (B. D. 

 Roberts). 



Indian Mallow or Bntterprint ('Abuiilon theaphrasti) . 



This weed is not mentioned by Torrey. 1826, nor in the first 

 edition of Gray's manual. 1848, but is recorded by Darlington in 

 1853. This foreign weed is becoming rather troublesome in culti- 

 vated grounds in Iowa. It was more or less common in the vicinity 

 of LaCrosse in 1883; was abundant in Iowa in 1886. 



ONAGRACEAE, EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY. 



Evening Primrose (Oenothera biennis). 



This American weed became a settler of Padua, Italy, in 1612. 

 Since then it has spread to every country of Europe and is recog- 

 nized as one of the most common weeds of the continent, although 

 it does not have as good a means of dissemination as many other 

 weeds, like the dandelion, thistle, bull thistle, etc. The small 

 seeds of this plant may and perhaps frequently do cling to hoofs 

 of animals and with mud may be carried by the feet of birds. 



PLANTAGINACEAE, PLANTAIN FAMILY. 



Buckhorn (Plant ago lanceolata). 



This weed seems to have been pretty well established in the 

 eastern states, when the first edition of Gray's manual was pub- 

 lished in 1848, as it was reported as common. John Torrey, in a 

 compendium of the Flora of the Northern and Middle States, pub- 

 lished in 1826, describes the weed, indicating that it was evidently 

 pretty well established. Darlington, in his Flora Cestrica, 1853, 

 states, "this weed is extensively naturalized and more abundant 

 than welcome in upland pastures." In the fifth edition of Gray's 

 manual the distribution is given as "dry fields, common eastward," 

 1867. The seventh edition indicates a wider distribution, and 

 Britton in 1901 indicates a distribution from New Brunswick to 

 northwest territory, Florida and Canada. It was observed in the 

 vicinity of LaCrosse, "Wisconsin, in 1892, and as early as 1874 in 

 Ames (C. E. Peterson). F. W. Paige records it from Fort Dodge 



