SEPTEMBER 63 



Dubuque, Sopteiiiher 13, 1908. 



Among' some fifteen blossoming herbs noted 

 along the streets here to-day is galinsoga — a 

 rather curious little composite, now in flourishing 

 bloom, bearing the name of a Spanish botanist. 

 The Mexican War left some interesting heritage 

 to the then new state of Iowa in the form of names 

 for counties — Buena Vista, Cerro Gordo, Palo 

 Alto. In other ways the war of 1898 has made 

 familiar to Iowa people a considerable number of 

 Spanish proper nouns not generally known before. 

 But on the whole, the influence of the Spanish lan- 

 guage on our life seems far less significant than 

 that of the French. In this city, at least, asso- 

 ciated with the French people from its origin, and 

 no distant neighbor of Julien, Lourdes, Bellevue, 

 Lamotte, and Martelle, Dr. Mariano Martinez de 

 Galinsoga seems at first thought a somewhat alien 

 name. 



In a plot of Dubuque copied at St. Louis in 1843, 

 lead is a prominent item in the records of loca- 

 tion marks. We read, for example : ''A: un chene 

 ayant pour temoins des morceaux de plomb;" 

 ^'F: divers trous fouilles pour 1 'exploitation du 

 mineral de plomb," etc. Conspicuous also in this 

 map are the five islands and the great sweeping 

 curves of the River. De Quincey, in a note to Tlie 

 English Mail-coach, objects to praise of the Missis- 

 sippi based on its size. ''The Tiber," he writes. 



