80 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



C. viridiflorus is scarcely less* beautiful. Many admire most the 

 large, deep purple flower of C. fendleri, and the scarlet one, open 

 day and night, of C. gonacanthus. The varieties of colors among 

 these flowers is exceptionally great, shading from pink purple to 

 yellowish green, and from deep scarlet to rose purple and yellow. 



The Honeysuckle Family is represented hy fourteen species, the 

 most common being the Yellow Honeysuckle [Lonicera flavd). 

 The Sweet Wild Honeysuckle (Z. grata) is abundant in the State. 

 The Hairy Honeysuckle is rarely met with. The Bush Honey- 

 suckle (Diervilla trifida), so common in the East, is also abundant 

 here on the borders of woodlands. 



The Composite Family is the most abundant in the number of 

 species of any in the State, there being* at least 244 different forms. 

 Some of the earliest and some of the latest flowering plants belong 

 to this order. One of the former is Townsendia grandi flora. 

 Almost stemless, crouched among the dead grass, it is a most 

 beautiful object amid the bleakness of early spring. There are 

 nineteen species of sunflowers. These in the latter part of sum- 

 mer and autumn everywhere attract attention, and still later by 

 their seeds furnish food to great nnmbers of grouse, quail and 

 other birds. The beautiful blazing stars (Liattis) are represented 

 by six species. The asters here find a most congenial home, 

 as twenty-eight species adorn our prairies. The Golden Rods 

 (Salidagd), so well loved by the bees, are represented by twenty 

 species. The Coreopsis, so much sought after and cultivated 

 in the east is represented by eight species. A short distance 

 northeast of Fairmount, acres are covered w T ith these golden-hued 

 flowers, to the exclusion of all other forms. One of the most uni- 

 versally spread of this order is A-plopofipus rubignosus, and A, 

 spinulosus. The former is peculiar in being "viscidly pubescent," 

 the flowers in subglobose heads, and generally have many, on erect 

 stems from ten to eighteen inches high. It is one of those curious 

 forms that has spread over the State from the lofty regions on the 

 west. 



The finest representative of the Lobelia Family is becoming ex- 

 ceedingly rare. I refer to the cardinal flower (L. cardinalis), 

 which was abundant along the Missouri wooded bluffs, but is now 

 rarely met with. 



The Figwort Family finds here a most congenial home. Twenty 

 species of Pentstemon grace the State; only six, however, are found 



