THE 



BOTANIST. 



Vol. I. 



^INGHAMTON, N. Y., AUGUST 1, 1891. 



No. VIII. 



SA.W > PLANTS, 



BY PROF. W, WHITMAN BAILEY, OF 

 BROWN UNIVERSITY. 



Barren regions often present a quite 



interesting flora. Our great western 



basin, the desert of Sahara, the dry 



steppes o'' '^ ntral Asia, and even the 



y arid Pac slopes of Peru and Chili, 



afford I rous plants. Here in New 



Englan -. have many sandy reaches, 



' reminr' one of the "blasted heath" 



I of Ma 



We explored this section the other 

 j day, buc our first temptation came in 

 ; the shape of fruit. The trailing dew- 

 ] berries grow here in profusion, large, 

 I luscious, and handsome. We dare not 

 think how many we made away with. 

 Fringing the woods are junipers, called 

 here "red cedars," many of them now 

 bearing their pretty blue berries. Scat- 

 tered over the plain are abundant groups 

 1}' the wild indigo in full flower. Its 

 J ellow must assume in our landscape 

 I most the position that the gorse does 

 ia Europe. This is the plant that we 

 often see attached to the heads of horses 

 just in from the country. There is a 

 prevalent idea that it will keep off flies. 

 If there is any substance in the three 

 kingdoms, vegetable, animal, or min- 

 eral, potent for that result, we should 

 like to find it. We have tried all kinds 

 of fly-papers, vermifuges, "death-on- 

 rats," Persian powder, prayer, expostu- 

 lation, and expletive, but so far the flies 

 are way ahead ! 



The small evening primrose ( CEno- 

 thera pumila ) is in bloom over the 



plains. These also have yellow flowers, 

 as do the two extremely common species 

 of poverty-grass ( Hudsonia tomentosa 

 and ericoides). Indeed, yellow appears to 

 be Nature's favorite color at this season. 

 Take, for instance, the Rudbeckia, the 

 autumn dandelions ( for they are bio cm 

 ing even now), the St. John's-worts, the 

 wild flaxes, and most of all, the golden- 

 topped aster ( Chrysopsis falcaia ). 

 This covers acres of land in Rhode 

 Island. 



Soon our attention is attracted to some 

 small rose-purple flowers of Polygala 

 polygama. The plants have certain 

 other underground flowers, too, white, 

 and nauch more fertile than the showy 

 ones above. Such cleistogamic plants 

 are much more common than until of 

 late has been suspected. Many violets 

 and certain grasses ( as amjjhicarpum ), 

 show the habit. 



The wavy-leaved milkweed {asclepias 

 obtusifolia) will be found just begin- 

 ning to fruit. The pretty sensative 

 plant (Cassia Chamaecusta) is extremely 

 common. Its foliage is delicate and 

 beautiful as that of a fern, and is slowly 

 responsive to a touch or pressure. The 

 smaller species (C. nictitans) is still 

 more sensitive. This leads us to remark 

 that when ones attention is directed to 

 this phenomenon of plant motion, he will 

 find it much more common than he sup- 

 poses. Many of the Leguminosae, change 

 the position of their leaflets at night, 

 as do the Oxalids, the Marsilia quadri- 

 folia etc. And by the way, as the plant 

 here mentioned is spoken of as rare in 

 your journal, I will say that it probably 



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