Vermont Botanical and Bird Clubs 9 



It is not my intention to even enumerate all the flowers seen 

 and collected during a stay of eight months, but only to tell of those 

 that for their abundance, beauty or novelty impressed themselves on 

 my mind. Many species familiar to us in Vermont are there in pro- 

 fusion; others cultivated in gardens here are there seen in their native 

 habitat growing in a luxuriance undreamed of north. 



The all-day ride across the state from the northeastern to the 

 southwestern corner was, even in October, a thing to be remembered 

 for beauty and interest. The soil of the state is in the main a red clay, 

 varying in tint from light rose to vivid vermilion. This alone would 

 dazzle the eye, but far and near were patches of golden sunflowers, 

 rudbeckias, coreopsis, purple ironweed, blazing star, goldenrod, asters, 

 boltonias and hosts of others, impossible to identify from a moving 

 train. One, growing quite close to the ground in vivid purple mats, 

 was later identified as a very beautiful star thistle, which dries per- 

 fectly for winter bouquets, keeping both shape and color. 



Every cabin and dugout, ranch house and water tank, was gay 

 with cypress vines and nasturtiums, morning glories and moon flow- 

 ers; immense castor oil plants shaded the windows and great beds of 

 cannas and caladium and chrysanthemums surrounded the way sta- 

 tions. It was color, color everywhere under the brilliant sunshine and 

 cloudless skies of Oklahoma. Great fields of cotton with its bursting 

 bolls, feterita and milo maize with their peculiar heads of ripening 

 grain, Sudan grass and cane and Kaffir corn all added to the charm of 

 a novel and most interesting panorama. Shortly before Christmas we 

 began to see the mistletoe, which is very abundant around Lawton and 

 is shipped north in large quantities. Wagon loads are sold in the streets 

 and the large pearly berries are most beautiful and are borne in great 

 profusion. Its favorite host seems to be the oak, although it scarcely 

 disdains any tree on which it may obtain foothold; I saw trees on which 

 no natural foliage could be seen, so densely was it covered with the 

 lovely parasite. 



Winters are short in Oklahoma and early in March the landscape 

 was suddenly transformed by the blossoming of thousands of peach 

 trees, plums, apricots, prunes and cherries, the apple coming a little 

 later. Along the roadsides and over the rocks were thickets of wild 

 Chickasaw plums not over three or four feet in height and a mass of 

 bloom, and the brooksides were suddenly blue with Viola conspersa, 

 growing in abundance rarely seen in the north, and anemones seemed 

 to be everywhere. 



