214 The American Naturalist. [March, 
the previous spring by Professor E. H. Barbour as Dæmon- 
elix, but known for some time to the cowboys and ranchmen 
of the region where it occurs as “the devil’s corkscrew” and 
“ fossil worm.” 
About noon of the day following our departure from Lin- 
oln we found ourselves in the little town of Harrison, near 
which Professor Barbour had obtained the one specimen that 
he had brought back to the University the year before. This is 
the county seat of Sioux County, which forms the north- 
western corner of Nebraska. It is not different from the many 
small towns that one finds on the prairies of the far west. We 
found a brick court house, a church, a school-house, a hotel, the 
almost invariable liquor saloon, several stores, and some two 
dozen or more dwellings. During Harrison’s administration 
the town had received its name and had had its western boom as 
the chief and only commercial center of some 300 square miles 
of territory, constituting Sioux County and supporting, ac- 
cording to the last census, less than 2500 inhabitants. During 
the summer of 1890 Sioux County, in common with a large 
number of other Nebraska counties, suffered terribly from 
drouth. Many of the settlers were compelled to abandon their 
newly made homes to save themselves from ruin. Among 
those left behind unable to get away, there was intense suffer- 
ing. During the succeeding winter many private donations 
of coal and provisions were sent them by the more favored 
farmers of the eastern counties. In this work of charity even 
the State was called upon to lend a hand. But this year the 
few inches of rain that had fallen had put an entirely different 
aspect upon everything. Many of the deserted homes that 
might have been seen in the western counties during the 
spring of 1891 were now reoccupied and everything looked 
hopeful. About Harrison the landscape was enlivened by in- 
numerable bright colored flowers. Chief among these were 
many species of Astragalus and related genera of leguminous 
plants. Here and there could be seen the bright colored 
spikes of the “ loco-weed,” rendered famous on western prairies 
by the baneful effect it has upon every horse unlucky enough 
toeatit. The animals are not killed, but are made so crazy 
