

December 24, 1890.] 



Garden and Forest. 



619 



foot and a half across. Having this habit, few plants when it is 

 in full bloom on the nearly naked sands are more striking than 

 this mass of violet color. It crowds down to the shore nearly 

 as far as the waves will let it, and attains its greatest vigor on 

 the lakeward side of the ridge of sand which skirts the water. 

 If the same effects could be reached by cultivation it would be 

 a very ornamental plant both from Bowers and foliage. The 

 sand is almost purely siliceous, being carried away by car-loads 

 for use in the best masonry as the "sharp lake sand" of the 

 architect and builder. But this sand, at least near the surface 

 beside the shore, is not devoid of organic matter, though in such 

 a finely divided condition as to mostly escape detection by 

 the eye. But dead fish and vegetable matter are continually 

 washed ashore, and their decay must furnish nourishment to 

 plants which grow where they have lain. They have plenty of 

 room in which to grow, and from their location are sup- 

 plied with considerable moisture, both by capillary action 

 from the saturated sand below them and by the moist air rising 

 from the neighboring waters. Besides, the free play of the 

 winds around the plants and their exposure to abundant light, 

 almost dazzling as reflected from the sand in the full blaze of 

 the sun, doubtless have much to do with the symmetrical group- 

 ing of the stems. In fact, this roundish or bunch-like habit, and 

 this tendency of plants to throw out several stems from a com- 

 mon root, is characteristic of several others near the shore, 

 which grow there exclusively or crowd down to it from 

 stations farther off, where they may be nearly or quite single- 

 stemmed, and such illustrations of this may be instanced as 

 Primus pumila, Cnicus Pitcheri, Solidago humilis, S. nemoralis 

 and Artemisia Canadensis. The plants are not crowded, each 

 has plenty of room, and, like trees in the open fields, they freely 

 develop in all directions, the forces acting on them being 

 in equilibrium. 



Another lingerer from the summer may still be seen in con- 

 siderable quantities upon the ponds during a week or two of 

 September — the White Water Lily. The only one I have de- 

 tected here is J^ympha:a rcniformis. 



It is now the proper season of another showy plant, Physos- 

 tegia Virginiana. Its natural home is in rather moist and 

 usually grassy ground. It has an ample spike of long flowers, 

 with an inflated, trumpet-shaped tube. They are pale rose, 

 more deeply colored on the upper side by darker lines, and 

 stand out horizontally from the stem with gaping mouths. In 

 the bud these form four rows, one on each side of the square 

 stem, but as they expand they turn toward the sun so that the 

 spike is at length one-sided. It is a very smooth plant, with 

 thick, dark green leaves, and is handsome throughout. 



Some of the Dodders continue in flower, attracting attention 

 by their tangle of orange-colored, thread-like stems, bearing 

 numerous clusters of pale or colorless flowers of a delicate 

 cellular texture. Cuscuta Gronovii and C. glomerata are the 

 principal ones. The former is parasitic on herbs and small 

 shrubs in damp, shaded locations, the latter almost always on 

 Composite, especially Golden-rods, in more open situa- 

 tions. In the fruiting stage it is conspicuous for the rope-like 

 coils around the stem of the host-plant, made by the dense 

 and continuous masses of globular capsules. 



Growing among the low shrubs, beside the sloughs and in 

 the moistland a'tall Thistle is common, Cnicus muticus. It 

 has long and slender branches, ending in a handsome, middle- 

 sized head of bright purple flowers. The viscid scales of its 

 compact and shapely involucre are not the least notable of its 

 features. Its leaves are few and distant, its peduncles long 

 and naked. When it attains a height of five or six feet, as is 

 often the case, raising the many heads of flowers far enough 

 above the shrubs to obtain a background of green from the 

 stunted Pines near at hand, it presents a pleasing picture, and 

 this Thistle will not be despised or soon forgotten when seen 

 in its native settings. 



Some tall Grasses now in flower on the sand ridges must 

 not be overlooked. They are Andropogon furcatus, A. Vir- 

 ginicus and Chrysopogon nutans. The first is about three feet 

 high, the last two usually from four to six feet. All are of a glau- 

 cous green hue, and provided with long, narrow leaves. The 

 two taller are the most striking in appearance, the culm of the 

 Andropogon ending in a diffuse panicle of digitate spikes, 

 feathery, With white, silky hairs; that of the Chrysopogon in a 

 graceful, oblong panicle, with shining, russet brown hairs. 

 Though the stands of the Chrysopogon are distant from each 

 other, and the Grass is scattered along the open ridges, there 

 are enough of them to give character and animation to the 

 scene, especially when the tall stems are waving in the wind. 

 As an ornamental Grass in the Pine-barrens, this " golden 

 bearded " one takes precedence of all that grow there at any 

 season of the year. Another curious Crass is met with more 



commonly on the higher ridges, being particularly character- 

 istic of the thinly wooded dunes, Aristida tuberculosa. It is 

 but ten to twenty inches high, and is remarkable for its flowers 

 bearing three long awns twisted together at the base and 

 widely divergent above. As they point every way, when in 

 fruit the stem has a kind of chevaux de frise look from what- 

 ever side it is approached. 



I have noted only the more striking features of the autumnal 

 flora of the Pine-barrens. It is one of the four periods into 

 which the season of flowers may be divided, noticeable 

 changes occurring so as to distinguish them from each other. 

 A kind of pause takes place, and then a different set of plants 

 flourishes, giving to the flora quite a distinct facics. These 

 appearances and changes are evidently due principally to vari- 

 ations in heat and moisture. The four periods may be called 

 that of spring, from the opening of the season till" about the 

 1st of June ; the early summer, lasting from four to six weeks 

 from the close of the former; the summer, continuing through 

 the warmest and usually driest part of the year, the season of 

 occasional showers, and ending about the last of August ; the 

 autumnal, or remainder of the year, as described in these 

 articles. 



Englewood, Chicago. E. J . rilll. 



Basket-Work of the North American Indians. — I. 



"DROBABLY the most generally diffused handicraft among our 

 -*■ Indian tribes is that of basket-making in its various forms; 

 it is that which subserves the most useful purposes, and in 

 which they have acquired most skill. This native art, at first 

 simple and rude to meet the requirements of savage and 

 nomadic life, has been steadily growing and improving and has 

 attained remarkable ornamental developments. 



The collection of native basket-work in the National Museum 

 is exceedingly interesting in the number and diversity of its 

 types, a mere enumeration of which is only admissible here : 

 dishes and plates, bowls, roasting-trays, jars and water-bottles, 

 mats, wallets, wall-pockets, hats (often of exquisite pattern), 

 hoodsforpappooses; baskets, of forms innumerable, to winnow 

 seeds, carry luggage, store grain, keep fruit, etc. 



The interest of the botanist is naturally aroused in the ma- 

 terial used by the various Indian tribes in their basket- 

 work. I have been enabled to determine a large proportion 

 of the plants thus used in North America;* many others, of 

 which I have no knowledge, are doubtless likewise employed, 

 and perhaps some of the readers of Garden and Forest* will 

 kindly contribute additional information on the subject, so that 

 the list may be made as complete as possible, even to the ex- 

 tent of including the material used by civilized people. 



Let us begin with Grasses. In a valuable paper by Dr. O. T. 

 Mason in the Report of the National Museum, 1884, we read that 

 the natives of the Aleutian Islands make their mats and baskets 

 "of the fibre of the Elymus treated as hemp," and that the mar- 

 velous nicety of this grass-weaving is worthy of all praise. 

 The species of Elymus referred to are E. mollis, E. arcnarius 

 and E. Sibiricus. The "Wild Wheat" basket-material of the 

 Chilkaht Indians may be one of these. 



A Sporobolus is mentioned in the same paper as used by 

 the Tule-River Indians of California, but there seems to be no 

 species of that genus, in that locality, suitable for the purpose; 

 it is not unlikely that Vilfa depauperata is meant, a plant with 

 long, filiform and flexuose culms, much sought after by Mexi- 

 cans for stuffing their large leathern aparejos, a purpose to 

 which its toughness and elasticity specially adapt it ("Botany 

 of California," ii., 267). 



The Cane (Arundinaria macrospermd) of the southern states 

 furnishes the principal material for the basket-making of the 

 remnants of the Cherokees, Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws and 

 Seminoles. The Choctaws specially excel in its use, and their 

 little baskets, variously colored, are offered for sale in several 

 southern cities. 



The New England Indians, especially the Penobscots, make 

 an extensive use of the Holy Grass {Hierochlo'c borealis). Its 

 long radical leaves become strongly involute in drying, form- 

 ing flexible threads, which are braided into tine strips, and these 

 are woven into baskets and other pretty fancy work. I have also 

 found braids of Holy Grass in a camp of the Crow Indians on 

 the Yellowstone, but did not learn how they were used. The 

 delicate and lasting fragrance of the dried leaves gives them 

 an additional, and perhaps not their least, merit. 



Other Grasses, species of Spartina, Calamagrostis, etc., 

 suggest themselves as particularly suitable where length, 



* My grateful acknowledgments are due Dr. C. E. Woodruff, U.S. A., for much 

 interesting and valuable information concerning the Hoopa ami Klamath Indiana, 

 whose basket-work, in variety el forms ami perfection of finish, is probably not 

 excelled in the country. 



