150 WYETHIA ARIZONICA. ARIZONIAN WYETHIA. 



And pass the prairie hawk that, ]ioised on high, 



Flaps his broad wings, yet moves not— ye have played 



Among the palms of Mexico and vines 



Of Texas, and have crisped the limpid brooks 



That from the fountains of Sonora glide 



Into the calm Pacific— have ye found 



A nobler or a lovelier scene than this ?" 



It was In a " scene like this," In the lower regions of the Wah- 

 satch mountains, that the writer first saw what he believes to 

 have been the "golden and flame-like flowers" of this beautiful 

 Utah plant. Sonie of the stout roots were dug with his botan- 

 ical trowel, and so sure was he of getting them to grow that no 

 specimens were secured for the herbarium, but unfortunately they 

 did not live. Subsequendy, on the writer's return, Mr. A. L. 

 Siler, of Kane county, Utah, was applied to, who in time fur- 

 nished seeds, and from them plants flowered in the writer's gar- 

 den, in 1878, which perhaps were the first living plants in 

 the East, and from these our drawing was made. When it 

 flowered it proved to be the Wyethia Arizonica, which had been 

 described under this name by Dr. Gray, a few years before, from 

 specimens collected in Arizona by Dr. Palmer. Dr. Gray also 

 credits Captain F. M. Bishop with finding it in southern Utah, 

 and Mr. Siler must share the credit of the early discovery with 

 these deserving names. 



We may learn from this account how unsafe it Is to depend on 

 a plant's name for much knowledge. No species had been found 

 in Arizona before Dr. Palmer discovered this; others, previously 

 known, grew more northerly. It was named from its location, 

 but we see It has already been received from Utah; and though 

 this but partially robs the name of peculiarity, the finding of 

 another species in Arizona, a not unlikely occurrence, would 

 take the meaning entirely away. 



As already noted, other species of Wyethia exist, but the first 

 one was only found In 1834, and the circumstances connected 

 with its discovery are so interesting that we are tempted to en- 

 large on them. People in these times often wonder how It was 



