NOVEMBER 135 



tiirod in the early days here, as a pleasant re- 

 minder of the old homes ^^back east" whence so 

 many of the townsfolk came. The ManuaVs ^^ pas- 

 tures and fields everyAvhere" certainly gives it a 

 wide habitat today; and locally it is considered a 

 nnisance, many efforts being made to exterminate 

 it. It was originally naturalized from Europe. 

 In the course of its history it has had at least three 

 specific names — the present colorless officinale^ 

 the taraxacum of Karsten, and the much more pic- 

 turesque dens-leonis of Desfontaines. The botany 

 also names a ''false dandelion" and a "fall dande- 

 lion," each of a different genus from our plant; 

 neither of them, apparently, being found in our 

 state. The uses of the dandelion for ''greens," 

 \dne, pastoral pipes, and curls, ought to give it 

 some favor with us yet, one would think. 



The insects noted on the eighth are not excep- 

 tional for the season, unless the butterfly is such. 

 However many butterflies one may have chanced 

 to see here in November, one hardly thinks of No- 

 vember as a butterfly month. The most common 

 insects of late fall and winter in this locality, 

 aside from grasshoppers and crickets (of frequent 

 occurrence in November, but probably rare in De- 

 cember), are most likely the "common caterpil- 

 lar" — the black-browmish banded one — and 

 angleworms. The black ground beetles might 

 come next in order. In central Kansas we noted 



