EUPHORBIA MARGINATA. SNOW ON THE MOUNTAIN. 79 



attractive to the traveller over these far western railroads, as it 

 is in its best dress only along the lines where the soil has been 

 disturbed. 



Mr. James Vick, the well-known florist, and enthusiastic 

 admirer of flowers, passing over one of diese railroads across 

 Kansas soon after its opening, was struck by its novel appear- 

 ance, and thus wrote home about it: "This Euphorbia mar- 

 o-inata is a very pretty annual, making a plant, in the newly dis- 

 turbed soil, of nearly two feet in height, and having the appear- 

 ance of a shrub or a miniature tree. The largest of the leaves 

 are nearly two Inches in length, growing smaller as they approach 

 the tops of the branches. The leaves are of a very pretty light 

 green, surrounded by a margin of clear snowy white, on the 

 large leaves merely a line, becoming wider as the leaves get 

 smaller, until the smallest are nearly or quite pure white, as are 

 also the flower bracts. It grows abundandy, and is called by 

 the people here 'Snow on the Mountain,' and we thought this a 

 very appropriate name." The florist is not alone in paying trib- 

 ute to its natural beauty ; even the botanist often pauses to express 

 his admiration of that element in this flower, though beauty has 

 no recognized place in his systems of classifications. Thus Mr. 

 Burgess, in the note already referred to, speaks of the dazzling 

 splendor of certain plants growing over the " rarely carved 

 Bluffs," among which he especially notes our plant as " strug- 

 gling up the side, over the summit at last!" The "Botanical 

 Gazette," in speaking of its existence at Madison, Indiana, says: 

 "It seemed to make its appearance quite suddenly at Madison a 

 few years ago, but is spreading with wonderful rapidity, covering 

 only such hills and parts of hills as have been cleared of timber, 

 and are covered with sand or gravel. It ranges over many acres 

 of the hilly ground, and is creeping slowly to the level ground. 

 Its milky juice is very abundant, and may some day )ield in its 

 gum, to investigating industry, an ample return for its cultivadon. 

 Those who have occasion, however, to handle it, had better not 

 do so with abraded skin, and should be careful not to convey any 



