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Title
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Scottsbluff Narratives, 1946_009
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Alternative Title
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1946 Scottsbluff Narratives
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Date
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1946
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Creator
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Frank Shoemaker
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Description
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Frank Shoemaker - Sandhills Narratives
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Identifier
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321301
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Transcription
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August 18, 1946 Scottsbluff, Nebraska A bright, clear day. After breakfast I started for Gering. The site south of the North Platte river and west of the highway, where I collected my only Nebraska specimens of Hypoxis hirsute, the yellow star grass, the sole amaryllis of the state, in 1935-6, has been destroyed by sand and gravel dredging. My notes for the years named, and my photograph of plants in flowering stage, are the only record of the species in the state west of North Platte (see Winter, 1937). The extensive groups of Polanisia trachysperma, "clammy-weed," noted in the years cited, bordering this now sandpit area, have been destroyed; but scattered plants persist. Crossing to the east side of the highway I entered the area where in 1934-8 I gathered quantities of buffalo-berries, Lepargyrea argentea for my friends. It required as usual some searching to locate the relatively rare shrubs of this species bearing yellow berries instead of the normal coral-colored ones; but I found several. Eustoma russellianum (Eustoma is a genus separated a few decades ago from the Gentians) is present and blooming in considerable numbers. It is a beautiful flower, opening straight up, terminal on stalks one to two feet high, a dozen to a plant; the blossom 2 ½ inches in diameter, sky-blue grading into violet, with purple and golden center. But of the thousand flowers at which I glanced, not one was perfect; more grass-hopper destruction. I collected and pressed two lovely spikes of Lacinaria sp.; the so-called "blazing star. The plants were 30 inches high. -Lavender-purple is not a blazing color; wrong end of the spectrum. And neither the long, narrow flowering spike as a whole, nor any unit selected from it, is star-shaped. Specimen #1 has 14 bud rows, surmounted by 11 rows in blossom. The ascent of sequence of buds and flowers, and of the short linear acute leaves on the flowering shaft, is right to left. Length of flowering and bud area, 12 inches. Specimen #2 varies from #1. There are 12 flower rows, plus 19 bud rows. Ascent of bottom 5 or 6 rows of buds, definitely right to left. 12 or 13 rows of buds, and the 12 rows of flower, all ascend left to right. Length of flowering and bud area, 12 inches. I hope to find and study other plants of the same species. I reached Gering, and after lunch went to the Laughlin home to get my botany MSS; no one there, so adopting suggestion of Laughlin when I met him yesterday I went in; doors unlocked; and readily found them.
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Rights
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To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These images are for educational use only. Not all images are available for publication.
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Is Version Of
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frank_h_shoemaker_321301-03992.jpg
