BRIEFER ARTICLES. 
Distribution of prickly lettuce in the United States.—Among tht 
weeds of recent introduction in America the prickly lettuce, Lactucs 
Scariola, ranks next to the Russian thistle in the rapidity with which 
it has spread to new localities and in the completeness with which it 
has occupied the area infested. Its range almost equals that of the 
Russian thistle, extending from ocean to ocean, and from southerl 
Minnesota to northern Texas. It is most abundant in the region from 
western New York to eastern lowa. There is a wide area from Mon 
tana to Mexico, including the Rocky Mountains and the westerl 
plains, from which it has not been reported. It is present in the 
reat Basin in Utah, Idaho, and Nevada, and west of the Cascades and 
Sierras in Oregon and California. 
The first record that we have of the presence of this plant in Amer 
ica is a specimen now in the Harvard herbarium collected at Cam 
bridge, Massachusetts, in 1863. In the fifth edition of Gray’s Manual 
(1867) it is said to be found in “waste grounds and roadsides, Cat 
bridge, Mass.” Aside from this there appears to be no farther record 
of it until 1877, when it was collected in St. Louis, Missouri. Fro@ 
1878 to 1883 it was reported from at least twenty-two localities 
states bordering on the great lakes, many of these reports appearing 
in the GazeTTe for those years. It was introduced in Salt Lake CilJ 
as early as 1880. During the subsequent decade comparatively Jittle 
was written about it. In 1894, however, it became so abundant as to 
attract attention in many parts of the country. Hundreds of requests 
for the identification of this species were received by the experimen! 
stations and by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Surviving !® 
spite of the dry weather which prevented other vegetation from gro¥ 
ing, the prickly lettuce became the most abundant and conspicuous 
weeds in many places where it had never been noticed before. Th* 
alarm caused by the prickly lettuce in 1894, was due in part, doubt 
less, to the fact that it was often mistaken for the Russian thistle 
During the season of 1895, just past, both the prickly lettuce and the 
Russian thistle have been better known and less has been heard fro® 
either of them, although the practical work of destroying them has 
been carried on with more vigor than ever. 
In some localities the prickly lettuce is less prominent than it wee 
last year. Instances are known where a few plants were noticed thé 
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