156 ACTINOMERIS SQUARROSA. SQUARROSE ACTINOMERIS. 



involucral scales. Not having attracted much popular atten- 

 tion, it seems to have gained no common name. 



The geography of this species is of peculiar interest. It 

 seems to be confined to an inland strip of country, but why it 

 has not extended farther north and east is a problem. Most of 

 our botanists give Western New York as its eastern boundary. 

 It was included in Torrey's catalogue of the plants of New 

 Jersey, but this was supposed to be an error. In recent years, 

 however, it has certainly been found at Paterson and at Mont 

 Clair in that State, according to Willis and the " Bulletin of the 

 Torrey Botanical Club." It is found in Pennsylvania, occasion- 

 ally up to the Delaware River, near Philadelphia, but has not 

 crossed. Chapman says it grows in Florida and northward to 

 North Carolina ; but its great home-centre seems to be in Ohio, 

 Michigan, and the adjoining Southwestern States. Thence it is 

 more sparingly found, until it loses itself in the deserts of West- 

 ern Kansas and Nebraska. As other species arc found in the 

 Southwest, we shall probably have to look in that direction for 

 its genetic home. 



Our plant commences to bloom rather early for an autumnal 

 flower, but its blossoms are continued far into the fall of the year. 

 As we have before said, it was introduced many years ago into 

 English gardens, although it seems to be rare there now, and we 

 know of no attempt to cultivate it in our own country. It is by 

 no means a showy plant, but still it deserves a place in the flower 

 borders of the real lover of nature, on account of the many valu- 

 able lessons it teaches, some of which we have briefly alluded to. 

 It seems to be a great favorite with certain coleopterous insects, 

 which seek out and greedily devour the flowers, although there 

 may be an abundance of others to feed on. 



Explanation of the Plate. — i. Tart of a flower-stalk. — 2. Achene, half mature, with 

 two divergent calyx-teeth. — 3. Cross section of the same. — 4. Portion oi flower-stalk 

 from about midway, showing a pair of opposite leaves, which it sometimes produces. 



