The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1878-04-25
More New Kansas Plants.

yor columns to make some botanical OBJ
servations to those OF your readers who
may take the pains to consider them.
desire TO state that | must decline the
title of professor, and others OF the same
kind which have been given me In your
valuable paper. lam simply worker
of the grOund-a small farmer II you
willard an attentive observer Of the
natural and artificial facts that are hap
penlng; more an admirer of Columbus
than OF Napoleon and Moses, having
never attended other than village schools
where they teach, as you know, a
little arithmetic and great deal OF cate
chism.
As we sec in tho Centennial catalogue
published in the transactions OF the
Academy of science, there are now in Kan
sas 1852 specimens of known plants,
among them 2ll grasses. The first cat.
alogue, published in 1871, contained
only about coo. An authority, savon,
claimed and published at that time that
GOO was or would be the real number OF
the fora of Kansas. "Nearly COM
piete," he says, and now only few
years after there are nearly as many
more. | have in my garden and in my
herbarium more than twenty new plants
which have collected in Saline county
since the last catalogue was published,
and which are not mentioned in that
document. They are as follows: 1,
Hyperium gyneDuntheum, Hall. =,
Ammania Nuttaui. 8, Oenothera
becolor Don. 4. Laptocunlis paths,
Mutt. ), Circium Undeterm. 6, Lycopus
SlnuoIus Ell. :, Physalisanguiata Nees.
s, Froelichia gracilis. 9, Monolapis Nut
Hall. 10, Croton glandulosus
l.. II, Boehmeria cllindri3. Il, CALI
trich helerophylla Phi. Is, Potamogetor
lip Rufesceus. ID,
Juncus acummstus Nix. l6, Setoiria-
Il, Aristida purpuracens.
Is, Poa Serotina ehrlr. 10, P-tenuifo
liza. %, chenopodium Boscl onum, Nog.
81, Talinum tereti folium. %, Alope-
carus genimlatus l.. %, Saglttaria
grainiula Schulz. "a, Poseolus perenlus.
%, Sagitaria loucifolia l.. %, Cyperus
stem lopis Torr. %, Pairicum villOsum.
20, EQtUSctuW leSlgatUu
That is all The other workers have
probably o like number. With that We
are far from the official or sacred Goo.
Facts and figures are something terrible.
They blunt the best and smartest argu-
ments. The most pretentious sentences
and predictions cannot hold out against
their presence. 1t is always the num-
ber-3 ore. The three reisns OF nature;
the three persons OF the blessed trinity
the three places OF the other world the
thrce words at Belshazer's feast the
900 years of the age of the world the
Goo plants of Kansas, etc.
Savans have a way of their own to
make some species. There is stock OF
grasses or hay compound Of two kinds
.one annual the other perennial, grO,o
ing in the same locality. That savons
claim belong to the same species and
'not much different" and yet a simple
working man-can pick from
selection every sprig, and not mistake
ono of the whole lot for that species.
Such is the case with setaria glauco, q
very common annual species and anoth-
err perennial form growing in Texas and
also in Saline county. Its the sane with
aIbos an A. blitum, etc. In
some other cases they make just the
ruling, making two different
species where we can't see more than
one. Rhas, taxicodendron and X. rad
icaus the Swans make two OF one the
same as political Swans make two
parties of one, or theological Swans
make two different beings of the body
and soul. Prof Carrnth says, with rsa-
son, "this tendency arises from the study
of plants in the herbarium rather than
in the field. The habit or mode of
growth of = plant may not appear III a
branch. 1t may require close observa-
ton of plants in the field 10 determine
some of these cases. If two forms Of the
same family grow often near each with
out graduation, into each other, how
ever similar, they should be regarded as
distinct species" The Swans study
botany in herbariums IS they study
man IN books, human society in semi
nary or college-as they. study the world
on maps.
have read somewhere, written by .
savan al found here lin Kansas) some
wild fruits, such as plums, choke ber-
ries." This name in the Wood class book
is the vulgar one given to Pyrus arbuti-
folia AL, which is not in the catalogue
Of Kansas plants. "Most of our grasses
are readily eaten by horses and cattle,
and are highly nutritious. Such are beard
grass land ropogon toleatus), the stem
Of which is very nutritious" Don't you
think so, farmers '-sbunch grass"
Trestnia dariuscula, not mentioned in
the catalogue, We never saw it called in
any book bunch grass. "The whole
number noticed in the entire State is $50
IS times 10 plus 8
When spoke of teaching botany in
the schools, Gid not mean to teach As
The Swans do, but by practical and vul-
gar notions-l mean practice botany.
But Swans do not like very much the
o. science in the common
schools. They prefer that people teach
else-holy history ,caiechism,
the Bible, prayer, etc., That is probs-
bly, right As they can't make = mistake,
and one must believe them. Although
il seems TO some people tia, if plants
could all be made the same day from
nothing there would not be 90 many