Upham.] 
164 
[May 21, 
region ; frequent in the Red river valley, and abundant in the great- 
er part of North Dakota, western Manitoba, and Assiniboia, grow- 
ing on both the longest cultivated and the newly broken land ; also 
a common weed along railways. Prof. J. C. Arthur writes of the 
origin of its name, as follows: “It grows in a globular form, of- 
ten three or four feet in diameter. When killed by frost, the branch- 
es remain rigid, the plant soon loosens from the soil, and the wind 
drives it bounding over the fields and prairies, until brought ip in 
some fence corner. When the corner is full, those that follow are 
enabled to scale the fence. With a change of wind, all the lodged 
plants are set flying in another direction. This is an effective 
method of scattering the seeds.” Prairie fires are sometimes car- 
ried by these rolling dead weeds across broad fire-breaks of plowed 
land. 
Amarantus blitoides, Watson, a common native weed of road- 
sides and waste places, rapidly spreading eastward, already intro- 
duced as far as western New York ; plentiful in Otter Tail and 
Becker counties, Minnesota, and at Valley City, Cooperstown, 
Towner, Minot, and Williston, North Dakota, but not found in 
some districts, as around Langdon ; not reported in Manitoba, nor 
westward on the north side of the international boundary. [Since 
preparing this paper, I have found this plant in August, 1890, es- 
tablished on Frank street and at the corner of this street and North 
avenue, Cambridge, Mass., near the West End car stables, where 
it probably was introduced in grain from the west.] 
Cycloloma platyphyllum, Moquin (Winged Pigweed), reported 
by Bessey as a “ tumble-weed” in portions of Nebraska, was ob- 
served on the railway embankment at Denbigh, north of the Souris 
river, North Dakota. 
Chenopodium Boscianum, Moquin, like the next, common on the 
prairie and thriving more on new 44 breaking,” about Langdon and 
westward. 
Chenopodium album, L. (Lamb’s Quarters, Pigweed) , a common 
indigenous weed on the dry prairies, often growing three to five 
feet high on gopher mounds, becoming abundant and equally rank 
nearly everywhere on newly broken land about Langdon, Devil’s 
Lake, and westward, also luxuriant along the embankments and 
ditches of railways; eastward, as in the Red river valley, plentiful 
in cultivated soil, around barns, and in waste places. 
Chenopodium urhicum , L., infrequent, chiefly in or pear towns, 
