FIELD NOTES OF WESTERN BOTANY 315 



sole point within Colorado, by a retrospect of Denver's early- 

 history. In the course of much immigration by wagon train across 

 the plains to the Colorado mining districts, at the crossing of the 

 Platte, only a two-days journey from the mines, all immigration 

 came to a halt; and man and beast rested there for some days, 

 and were refreshed before proceeding. In the midst of this riverside 

 resting place enterprising tradesmen spread their tents or built 

 their sheds or shops of merchandise ; and these were the beginnings 

 of Denver. Many a weed and small herb from the East and the 

 South must have reached its introduction into Colorado by that 

 tide of immigration; some of them probably unable to maintain 

 other than a transient foothold, and apparently myosurus was 

 among these. 



Whether or not this conjecture about the transiency of 

 myosurus at Denver shall prove to be the truth, certain it seems 

 that the plant has gained its best development, as well as its 

 strongest foothold in America in the northern parts of Missouri, 

 and in south-central Illinois, tracts of great extent, and in nearly 

 the same latitude. The most perfect-specimens of the species 

 which exist in the U. S. Herbarium or in my own were distributed 

 from near Allenton, Missouri, by Mr. Letterman. None from 

 Europe equal them in the size and fertility of the individual plant; 

 but when we come to speak of the material brought from far away 

 Texas, we object that the largest and best specimens distributed 

 by the zealous and efficient Mr. Bush of Missouri, are not M. 

 minimus at all, but represent a species indigenous there, and which 

 seems to be awaiting a name and an indication of its very good 

 characters. 



To those who have any fair knowledge of North American 

 botany as a whole, it is well known that on both sides of the 

 Mexican boundary beyond Texas, and also up the coast through 

 California, and even to British Columbia, there exist not a few 

 native species of this genus whose validity no one doubts or can 

 doubt who has seen them; but also M. minimus itself is found 

 here and there on that side of the continent, and without doubt 

 introduced; it is therefore to be apprehended that mysurus, 

 both in the original European type, and in the form of one or 

 more of western indigenous species, may make its way into our 

 regions eastward, from, the Pacific slope, if indeed it may not 

 have done so already. 



