1856.] Flora of the Western Slates. 211 



peculiar to prairies, but found also in woods, hills, and river banks. 

 Conspicuous among the spring flowers, and well known to the florist, is 

 the American pink — the Dodccatheon of Liiinaius, so called from the 

 fancy that its twelve flowers were twelve divinities. It is indeed a plant 

 of rare symmetry and modest beauty, and is very nearly related to the 

 primrose, having, as the botanists say, " its leaves all radical, and its 

 flowers on a scape." Humble and delicate, it seeks to conceal from your 

 view its " twelve flowers " of snowy white, reflexed petals, and purple 

 stamens, beneath the shade of the taller lierbs. 



The Phalangium is another early flower, of much interest. Its bul- 

 bous root resembling a small onion, lies deep in the soil, and from it 

 arises a taller spire of pale blue flowers, with narrow, grass-like leaves. 

 On account of its esculent bulb, it was well known to the Indians, and 

 by them called quamash. Several species of wild indigo (Baptisia) 

 appear in spring, with their bluish foliage, and large, white butterfly 

 shaped flowers. B. leucophasa and B. leucantha are both conspicuous 

 herbs in their season, the former in April, the latter in June. Many 

 other leguminous plants will also be noted by the passing botanist as 

 characteristic of the prairies, such as the indescribable Desmodia, the 

 nondescript Psoralea, the curious Dalea of blue spikes, and the pretty 

 Petalostemon with spikes of white and violet flowers. 



June comes crowned with flowers, no less upon the prairie than else- 

 where. ^ Then the magnificent j^rairie rose (Kosa setigera), begins to 

 bedeck itself in a thousand blossoms, of every varying shade of purple 

 to palli.l white. Then, too, the sandy or the river-prairie is seen tinted 

 all over with the soft .sun-lit carmine of the Spirea lobata — one of the 

 loveliest in all the floral train. This herb, slender and erect, some four 

 feet in bight, bears at its top a panicle of small, numerous and exquis- 

 itely colored flowers. Under cultivation it improves every way, becom- 

 ing taller, more profusely blooming — the chief attraction of the garden. 

 ^ With midsummer commences the reign of the Composit^e, an order of 

 plants more numerous upon the prairies than any other, indeed whose 

 flowers seem to outnumber, from July to October, all other tribes 

 together. The color which their rays assume, with many honorable 

 exceptions, is the plebeian yellow. Among the earliest of this great 

 family, appears the Actinomeris, sordid and ragged, with half-f -rmcd 

 rays, aping the sunflower — plebeians among plants. The various 

 species of Coreopsis — some rough and ray less, others polished and ele- 

 gant — next appear, making amends for the deformity of their relations. 

 Hrst. the tall, three-winged Coreopsis (C. tripteris), expands its brilliant 

 rays to the sun. Long time have you watched its smooth and slender 



