THE CINCINNATUS. 



Ml. MAYl, 185G. Jfo. 5. 



©Iisjibatiorts oit ifei .flora of H;t Ul^stetn Stalts 



(continued feom page 84.) 



We propose to consider, in this number, that department of our flora 

 which consists of herbaceous plants. Tor the sake of giving some 

 degree of method to our observations, we would here distinguisli b'etween 

 the "j^rairie flowers," the "sweet icild-ioood flowers," and the naiuml- 

 ized weeds, and treat of each class in order. Few observers of nature 

 are so careless as not to understand the propriety of these distinctions. 

 The language of poetry attributes beauty to the first, sweetness to the 

 second, and noxiousness to the last. With the naturalist, however, 

 these epithets have- no significancy, and in his view all these classes are 

 exalted ^ to the same level of interest, seeing in all an equally wise 

 adaptation to the circumstances in which they vegetate, and the ends 

 which they were intended to subserve. 



The beauty of the prairie flowers is proverbial. Bred and nurtured 

 in the sun, they partake in general of a brilliancy of coloring, a hardiness 

 and vigor of growth which the wild-wood flowers, nurtured only in the 

 shade, do not possess. With the former, flaming red and golden yellow 

 predominate, while the snowy white and empyrean blue are said to pre- 

 vail among the latter. As the forests are the homes of the trees and of 

 every woody growth, so the prairies are the peculiar and appropriate 

 nativity of myriads of herbs. Here they find all the requisite conditions 

 for their rapid multiplication and growth, although their diversify is 

 measurably limited by the uniformity of soil and surface. As prairies 

 are unknown in the Eastern States, those species of plants which make 



VOL. I., NO. V. 14. 



