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EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT 



consisted mostly in the great prevalence of plants that in ordinary 

 seasons are scarcely noticed. The Amarantus Blitum already spokerk 

 of spread at an unprecedented rate, and grew in great luxuriance. 

 Immediately after the locusts left, the common purslane started 

 everywhere and usurped the place of many other species. The com- 

 mon nettle {Solanum Carolinense)., and the sand burr {S. rostratum) y 



[Fig. 42.] 



a- cc 



Green Larva of White-lined Morning S^jhinx. 



spread to an alarming degree, and the Poke weed {Phytolacca decan- 

 dra)^ was very abundant. All kinds of grasses grew very luxuriantly 

 during the Summer, a fact due to the wet and favorable weather; 

 but some kinds * that are rare in ordinary seasons, got the start 

 and grew in great strength and abundance. Among these none are 

 more notable than the sudden appearance very generally over tha 

 locust-devastated region, of what is usually called a new grass. 

 Springing up wherever the blue grass gets killed out it proves a God- 

 send to the people, for while it is young and tender cattle like it and 

 fatten upon it. This grass is the Vilfa vaginoeflora, an annual which 



[Fig. 43.] 



Black Larva of White-lined Morning Sphinx. 



is common from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. Unnoticed 

 during ordinary season?, the destruction of the blue grass and other 

 plants by the too close gnawing of the locusts, gives it the advantage 

 in the struggle for existence — an advantage which is soon lost, how- 

 ever, as the normal relations between species are assumed again in a 

 few years after the disturbing influence has ceased to be operative. 



* Prof. G. C. Brodhead (Trans. St. Louis Ac. Sc. Ill, p. 348; mentions more particuhirly, Ari- 

 stida oHgostachya, in ordinary seasons of rare occuiTence around Pleasant Hill, as reaching the unusual 

 height of two feet, and being very alnindant. Eragrostis poaoides, ordinarily recumbent and scarcely 

 noticed in yards and along roadsides, grew in profusion and Sii feet high, " looking like meadows 

 ready to be mowed." Panicuni sanguinale was hixuriant enough to cut for hay. 



