Prairie Flora 361 



blooms with the star grass, and many of the plants show white flow- 

 ers. In dry places the earliest of the Compositae, Antennaria plania- 

 ginifoHa, forms patches of cray on the prairie. Toward the end of 

 May the early meadow rue, Thalictrum dioicum, opens its delicate blos- 

 soms on rich ground. Viola pratincola opens its modest flowers, but 

 buries its cleistogamous flowers in the ground. The ground plum, 

 Astragalus caryocarpus, opens its showy racemes of violet-purple flow- 

 ers, to be followed by its thick-walled fleshy edible pods, said to be 

 part of the bill, of fare of the early voyageur. Vicia americana is 

 common in rich places, and Vici,a linearis could be sometimes found 

 toward the western boundary of the state. 



With the beginning of June several grasses become conspicuous, 

 and among these perhaps the most common and beautiful are the pale 

 panicles of Koeleria cristata, opening everywhere on bluff side and 

 prairie. A much taller and almost equally beautiful grass is Phalaris 

 arundinacea often found in moist places on the prairie. The slender 

 wheat grass, Agropyron tenerum, is seen sending up its slender spikes 

 everywhere. This grass has persisted along road sides and on dry 

 bluffs, and has perhaps the most agricultural value of any of the native 

 grasses. On richer and moicter prairies the awned v/heat grass, 

 Agropyron caninum, is found sending up its nodding bearded spikes, 

 vvhile in very dry places the western wheat grass, Agropyron stiiithii 

 is common, and its broad flattened spikes are very conspicuous. 



Sometimes, but not very often, Comandra umbellata is found 

 forming patches on the prairie early in June, where its long running 

 root stocks seem to connect the plants together.. 



On high rolling prairies P6oralea esculenta sends up it^. spreading 

 bushy tops villous with whitish hairs, bearing spikes of bluish flowers. 

 This plant has a deep farinaceous root and was called "pomme-de-terre" 

 by the French frontiersmen, and it was from the abundance of this 

 plant along its sandy banks that the Pomme-de-Terre river took its 

 name. By the Sioux Indians, this plant was called the Teepsenee, and 

 it was their principal food plant. One who chose to follow an Indian 

 trail in the early days was sure to find wherever the Indians camped 

 a great pile of these thickened roots from which the edible central 

 part had been extracted. These roots are rich in starch and have 

 a pleasant flavor. I do not know that any attempt has ever been 

 made to cultivate this plant. Perhaps it would take too many years 

 to get a crop. In shallow depressions of the prairie one is sure to 

 find a rich growth of Lathyrus venosus with its showy bluish or pur- 

 ple flowers. In early June, too, th3 prairie ros), Rosa pratincola, be- 

 gins to bloom; and one who has seen it at its best will never be able 

 to forget its beauty. Toward autumn, the corymed flowers are fol- 

 lowed by the large showy, glabrous fruits which distinguish it from 

 the smaller fruited smooth stemmed rose, supposed to be Rosa Nanda, 

 found along the river banks and edges of timber. The proper nomen- 

 clature of these two roses would be much easier did we not find many 

 bushes seemingly intermediate between the two. Another prairie 

 shrub, Amorpha nana, blooms early in June; and its long slender curv- 

 ing spikes of deep purple flowers are very beautiful. Amorpha canes- 

 cens, almost always called shoe strings for the reason that its roots 



