486 The American Naturalist. [May, 
of the plants I saw I give from memory: Cnicus ochrocentrus, Liatris 
punctata, Cleome integrifolia, Cleomella angustifolia, Gaura parvifiora, 
 G. coccinea, Lygodesmia juncea, Eriogonum annuum, Psoralea tenuiflora. 
I spent about two weeks on the high table-lands of Deuel county, 
seven to ten miles northeast of Chappel. Here the principal grasses 
are the buffalo grass (Buchloé dactyloides) and the grama (Bouteloua 
oligostachya). Both, even when dry, make an excellent pasturage for 
cattle. The animals graze on them throughout the winter, if the snow 
is not too deep. 
At first I strolled over the prairies and hills, but found very little of 
interest in the way of plants. Everything was dried up. Three kinds 
of cactus, viz., Mammilaria vivipara, Opuntia missouriensis, and O. 
Jragilis; two thistles, Cnicus undulatus and C. ochrocentrus, Yucca 
angustifolia, Erysimum asperum, and Astragalus sericoleucus, were the 
most remarkable. : 
My trip had been a failure had I not found another field for bot- 
anizing, viz., the ‘‘sand-draws.’’ Sand-draw is a word that I have 
not seen in any book, and still it is a word in common use among the 
settlers of Western Nebraska. The sand-draw is about the same as the 
“wady” of Arabia. It is a stream in which the water, as a rule, is - 
never seen. The sand-draw looks like a dried-up stream with sandy 
or gravelly bottom. . The sand is five to ten, or even up to fifteen or 
twenty feet deep. In this sand the water is running, perhaps the year 
round. In oneof the smaller I saw a well dug, about fifteen feet deep, 
that contained water in the month of August. 
In the sand-draws I found many plants which for their beauty are 
well worthy of cultivation. Among others I may mention the pink- 
purple Jfomea leptophylla (also remarkable for its immense roots 
weighing sometimes as much as 100 pounds ) ; the white prickly poppy» 
Argemone platyceras ; the yellow Menezelia nuda; the white oF pe i 
ŒÆnothera albicaulis ; Lupinus argenteus var. procumbens ; Polanisia 
trachysperma ; Cleome integrifolia; Chrysopsis villosa; Asclepias speci- 
osa; Croton texensis; Eriogonum annuum and E. corymbosum, etc. — 
Also of interest is the little sand cherry (Prunus pumila), a low shrub 
with creeping branches and big, juicy, edible berries. Among the 
rarer plants I found were Pectis angustifolia, Acerates auriculata, Pet- 
alostemon tenuifolium, and another near to P. gracile 
I also took a day’s ride out to a cañon near North Platte River. js i 
additions to my collection made during the trip contained, amo" 5 
others: Psoralea linearifolia, Eriogonum alatum, E. flavum, at 
aureum, R. cereum, Dalea aurea, D. laxiflora, and Prunus nse 
P. A. RypBerc, Lincoln, Neb. ; 
(eh er EVI eh) ERS E E Me Pe 
