PARK AND CEMETERY 
379 
Some Eittle-Known 
Bv Wilfred r 
The earlier botanists began their work in the east- 
ern portions of our country, and the majority of our 
standard botanical text books have been written by 
eastern botanists, who, of course, have known more 
of their own local flora than that of other more distant 
states. The result was that many species in other 
states remained unknown and undiscovered until re- 
cently. Within the past ten years botanists have been 
making rich discoveries in Michigan and other states. 
A native of Michigan, and having resided in both its 
peninsulas, I am, of course, far better acquainted with 
its native flora than that of the eastern states, which I 
never have visited. 
The native flora of IMichigan is exceedingly rich 
and not yet fully catalogued. 
I shall attempt to describe only a few of the most 
ornamental among the more recently discovered spe- 
cies, or little known species, some of which will yet be 
prized in floriculture. 
SulUy>ant' s Cone-Flower, Rudbeckia. SalliJ^antL 
For the past 20 years or more i have been meeting a 
strange and most beautiful Rudbeckia, but could find 
no botanical- des.cription of it until very recently. 
In early spring one would discover it sending out 
dark purple stems and slender rolled up leaves, entire- 
ly unlike any other Rudbeckia. Should anybody re- 
ceive a plant at this stage, and be told that this plant 
was remarkable for its very large root-leaves, this 
statement would not appear reconcilable with its first 
appearance in the spring, yet such is the fact. 
The plant is a long-living perennial not a biennial as 
is R. hirta, the common rough cone-flower, making a 
fine broad clump, in summer season a broad mass of 
very large, very broad, ovate, coarsely toothed, dark 
rich, shining root-leaves, thinly clad with coarse hairs. 
These leaves are a beautiful feature of the plant. 
The root-leaves are not narrow, and densely bristly 
hairy like R. speciosa, or broader and roughly hairy 
Native Ornamentals. 
L Brotherton. 
like those of R. hirta, not large and divided like those 
of R. laciniata, and R. tripida, nor the leaves on lower 
portion of the stem the larger, smooth and glaucous 
kind like those of R. maxima. 
The large broad radical leaves form a dense mass 
of rich foliage, thickly covering the root-clump. From 
this dense mass of handsome foliage spring many 
slender, branching stems, about 2 feet tall, bearing 
some foliage below, but wdth few very small leaves 
above ; indeed the plant is almost leaflless above. Each 
of these long slender, naked, smooth branches is in due 
season terminated with a ver}^ large and most beautiful 
flower head, surpassing in richness and beauty any 
other species. I have seen a large patch of it that was 
indescribably beautiful when in bloom. 
The central disk is very broad, flattened, the scales 
and disk flowers, very dark, rich purple, almost jet 
black. The very numerous, very long, very narrow, 
three-toothed rays spread out, forming a flow'er-head 
3/4 to 5 inches wide, and are of the richest orange- 
yellow, a great contrast in color with those of R. hirta, 
or any other species. 
In passing through western Ontario last August 
with a fellow-botanist, Mr. M’illiam S. Cooper, on a 
swiftly-moving train, we passed a strip of Rudbeckias, 
apparently of this species, some 4 miles long and it 
was one of the most beautiful sights w-'e ever saw. M e 
were travelling too rapidly, and looking through glass 
window's, and could not be positively assured of the 
identity of this species, except that it must be R. Sulli- 
vanti, or closely related to it. Flad it been R. hirta 
with its yellow rays we would not have noticed it at 
all, and yet many people go into raptures wdth this not 
so very brilliant species, and dub it “Black-eyed Su- 
san,” just as they dub several other flowers. 
Rudbeckia Sullivanti generally grows naturally in 
rich, moist, black soils, in rather bright sunny locations, 
though I have found it occasionally in drier sandy 
