July 27, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



151 



WEEDS OF THE NORTHWEST TEKEITOEIES. 



The bulletin on ' Noxious Weeds and How to 

 Destroy Them,' prepared by T. W. Willing, 

 Territorial Weed Inspector, and published by 

 the Department of Agriculture of the Govern- 

 ment of the Northwest Territories of Canada, 

 contains matter of botanical as well as agri- 

 cultural interest. It is curious to notice that 

 some plants which elsewhere are never thought 

 of as weedy in their habits are catalogued in 

 the 'list of the worst weeds.' Thus we find 

 that Sierochloe borealis (now known as Savastana 

 odorata) is spoken of as ' one of the most trouble- 

 some weeds in the Northwest Territories. ' One 

 is surprised at finding in the ' list of worst 

 weeds ' such elsewhere harmless plants as the 

 common white anemone (Anemone dichotoma), 

 the golden fumitory (Corydalis aurea), the 

 spider flower (Cleome integrifolia), the erect 

 cinquefoil (Potentilla norvegica), Silver-weed 

 (Potentilla anserina), etc. ; and also that some of 

 the most common weeds of other regions are 

 omitted, for example, crab-grass {Panicum 

 sanguinale), green foxtail (Chaetochloa viridis), 

 yellow foxtail (C glauca), jimson weed {Datura 

 stramonium), purslane (Portulaea oleracea), ox- 

 eye daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemiim), bur- 

 dock (Arctium lappa) and dandelion (Taraxacum 

 taraxacum). 



THE FEENS AND FLOWEEING PLANTS OF OKLA- 

 HOMA. 



PeofessorE. E. Bogue, ofthe Oklahoma Ex- 

 periment Station, publishes as Bulletin 45 a list 

 of the ferns and flowering plants of Oklahoma. 

 It is the first attempt at such a catalogue, and 

 the author disclaims completeness for it, yet it 

 is more than ordinarily interesting, since so 

 little has been published in regard to the flora 

 of the territory that it is to most botanists a 

 terra incognita. Looking over the list we find 

 13 Pteridophyta, but one Gymnosperm (Juni- 

 perus virginiana), 99 Gramineae, but one Orchid 

 (Gyrostachys gracilis), 131 Compositae, etc. 

 There are 30 species of trees, including hickories 

 (3 species), the black walnut, Cottonwood, 

 willows (3), oaks (5), hackberries (2), elms (2), 

 mulberry, sycamore, hawthorn, wild plum, 

 red-bud, honey locust, Kentucky coflee-tree, 

 box elder, China tree, woolly buckthorn, per- 



simmon, and ashes (2). One is struck by the 

 absence from this list of bass-wood, crab apple, 

 wild cherry, maple, ironwood, and birch. 

 Among herbaceoiis plants we notice 12 species 

 of Eragrostis, 13 of Panicum, 15 of Polygonum, 

 5 of Astragalus, 7 of Lespedeza, 6 of Psoralea, 14 

 of Euphorbia, 4 of Convolvulus, 6 of Ipomoea, 7 

 of Verbena, 6 of Physalis, 6 of Solanum, 8 of 

 Plantago, 6 of Artemesia, 10 of Helianthus, etc. 

 There is no Lilium, Taraxacum, Jlepatica, Phlox, 

 nor any species of Ericaceae, but oddly there is 

 a Claytonia, a Castalia, an Aquilegia, Lobelia 

 cardinalis, and Chrysanthemum leucanthemum. 

 We shall look with interest for further results 

 of Professor Bogue's studies of this interesting 

 flora. 



NORTH AMERICAN FOX-TAIL GRASSES. 



The American species of the weedy grasses 

 known as Fox-tail or Pigeon grasses, and which 

 were until recently described under the generic 

 name of Setaria have been carefully revised by 

 Professor Lamson-Scribner in a recent bulletin 

 (No. 21) of the Division of Agrostology, of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. The 

 name Setaria having fallen into synonymy, and 

 the autonomy of the genus making Panicum im- 

 possible, Chamaerophis and later Ixophorus were 

 suggested, only to be discarded after further 

 study, these genera being clearly distinct from 

 the grasses under consideration. Nothing re- 

 mained but to re-christen the genus, which was 

 done in 1897 (Bull. 4), with the name Chaeto- 

 chloa. Accordingly these grasses should now 

 bear this generic name instead of Setaria, or 

 any of the others mentioned above. 



In the present paper 23 species and 12 varie- 

 ties are described, nine of which are new to sci- 

 ence, viz : C. gibbosa from Texas and Mexico ; 

 C. hispida, Cuba ; C. leucopila, Mexico ; C. rigida, 

 lower California ; C. latifolia breviseta, Mexico ; 

 C. macrosperma, Florida and Texas ; C. villosis- 

 sima, Texas ; C. grisebachii ampla. New Mexico 

 and Mexico ; C. grisebachii mexicana, Mexico. 

 The more common species in the United States 

 are C. Glauca, Yellow Fox-tail ; C. verticillata, 

 Hispid Fox-tail ; C. viridis, Green Fox-tail ; C. 

 italica, Millet ; and C. italica germanica, Hun- 

 garian Grass. The paper closes with lists of 

 excluded (11) and doubtful (12) species, and a 

 good index. 



