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A Western plant, ranging from New Mexico to Idaho. It has 
been reported from Iowa, and from northern Michigan, and is un¬ 
doubtedly extending eastward. The plant produces seed in consid¬ 
erably quantity, and propagates only by seed. It is in many places 
a serious pest in cultivated fields, because of its abundance and 
rapid growth ; being an annual, it is not difficult to destroy, and 
can be kept down by a little care; the trouble usually comes from 
delay in cultivation, which allows the weed such a start that it 
works injury to the crop, and requires much additional labor to 
eradicate. A mistake is often made in allowing it to grow and pro¬ 
duce seed on waste land, or along road-sides. It is a too common 
sight to see such places covered with a tall, forest-like growth of 
this plant. From these places seeds are scattered upon our fields, 
and each year the trouble is repeated. Stop the formation of seed, 
and the plant will soon cease to be a pest. 
SOLANUM ROSTRATUM, Dunal. (Plate VIII.) 
(Beaked Horse-Nettle ; Buffalo-Bur.) 
Annual; yellowish, with copious stellate pubescence, much 
branched, 6 inches to 2 feet high. Stems, petioles, and veins of the 
leaves armed with straight prickles. Leaves 2 to 4 inches long, pin- 
natifid or sometimes bipinnatifid, the lobes rounded. Peduncles 
about an inch long, later 3 to 4 inches, bearing several flowers on 
short pedicels. Flowers yellow, an inch in diameter. Fruit en¬ 
closed by the close-fitting calyx, which is thickly beset with 
prickles. 
Ranges from New Mexico to Wyoming, and across the plains. 
It has migrated eastward, being common in Iowa and Missouri, and 
is reported from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and New York. It is 
everywhere recognized as a bad weed ; here, from its abundance, it 
ranks as one of the worst. Destroying early enough to prevent the 
scattering of seed, is an effectual remedy. 
FRANSERIA DISCOLOR, Nutt. (Plates IX. and X.) 
Perennial; the erect, slender stems from very slender running 
root-stocks, 6 inches to 1 foot high, usually somewhat branched. 
Leaves 2 to 5 inches long, oblong in outline, interruptedly bipin¬ 
natifid, the lobes short and broad, silvery white below, green above. 
Sterile racemes usually solitary, terminating the stem, occasionally 
small racemes on the lateral branches, fertile flowers few, the in¬ 
volucres ovoid, 2-flowered, armed with few short conical spines. 
Ranges from New Mexico to Wyoming, and east to Nebraska. 
An aboriginal species that does not appear to have migrated very 
far eastward. We have no weed so persistent as this; its thread- 
