28 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
V 
the one bit of beaut3^ in the whole stricken area. Two 
other nightshades were present sparingly, 5. Carolinia- 
num and S. eleagni folium, the former having become 
established previously in the region and the latter making 
its appearance for the first time. 
, Among the erect plants appear the annuals mentioned 
above and a few perennials which were probably growing 
on or near the pile in Chicago, but may have come in the 
cars from more distant fields. Among these plants were 
several species of pigweeds, one Chenopodium amhrosi- 
oideSy being a new" tenant. There were two species of 
dock, several smartweeds, three verbenas besides the 
bracteosa, several plants of thistle, a few^ amaranths, and 
four groups of plants that seemed so thoroughly at home 
as to require special mention. 
Neither of the tw^o common species of Jimson-weed is 
prevalent around Joliet. A few plants are occasionally 
seen along the old Illinois and Michigan canal, but they 
are not common. In this special area, three miles aw^ay 
from the contaminating influences of weed\^ Joliet, there 
grew two clumps of i^ux^Xq Stramonium and one of white, 
over four feet high and forming the most striking appear- 
ance in this barren spot. There was also another clump, 
pver five feet high and perfectly healthy and happy — Iva 
xanthifolia. 
Here then, in the midst of a fertile pasture, is an area 
of 18,750 square feet, entirely deprived of its beautiful 
covering of June grass, converted into a dumping ground 
for the refuse of a distant community of uninterested 
people, and made into a breeding place of noxious weeds. 
While it cannot muster suflftcient plant life to allow one 
individual to a square foot and has representatives of 
only about thirty-two species all told, it must bear the 
odium of producing but one plant not considered a weed, 
and that Oenothera biennis, a doubtful member of the 
list of desirable neighbors. The only claim to respectabil- 
ity the area can make is the fact that, although it has 
produced eight weeds not previously found in the region, 
