274 



THE OABDENERH MONTHLY 



[September, 



ing five ; this season it bore thirty ; the first were 

 ripe on the fourth of July, the balance are ripe 

 at this date. 



" The largest were taken off and given away be- 

 fore I saw them, two of them measuring- 8 and 

 8J inches in circumference respectively. Those 

 I send you were taken off" the tree yesterday 

 forenoon, the 10th inst., and were the largest 

 that were then on, but I think little if any more 

 than a fair average in size. The smaller one, I 

 fear, will be rotten before it reaches you, as it 

 was bruised while on the tree, and the juice has 

 been weeping from it. 



" Please let me have your opinion of them as 



compared with the Amsden, Alexander and 

 other new varieties." 



[Not having Amsden, Hale's Early, or other 

 fruits from the same localitj', we cannot speak 

 comparatively, but can say it is one of the best 

 early peaches we have had this year, and we 

 have had some first-class ones. 



We do not know but the peach is playing 

 some pranks on us this season. -On the writer's 

 own grounds, Hale's Early, Troth's Early and 

 Early York all came in together, no difference 

 whatever between them. The trees seem all 

 equally healthy. Last year, in the same trees, 

 Hale's Early was much in advance. — Ed. G. M.] 



ATURAL History and Science. 



PRAIRIE FLOWERS. 



BY L. J. TEiMPUN, HUTCHINSON, KAN. 



Every one has heard of the beauty of our 

 Western prairies when decked in their floral 

 robes of summer. And every one has tried, at 

 some time, to form, in the imagination, a pic- 

 ture of a landscape, sweeping away in the dis- 

 tance as far as the eye can discern. But to one 

 who has never seen such a sight a true concep- 

 tion of the real scene is impossible. To a mind 

 in sympathy with nature there is something 

 in such scenes to elevate it and excite the 

 most lively emotions. There is something al- 

 most sublime in the grand stretch of these vast 

 plains as they sweep away to the distance, at 

 times almost as level as the bosom of the sleep- 

 ing ocean, then rising in the most gentle and 

 graceful undulations, and again ascending in 

 bolder but beautifully rounded, or occasionally 

 breaking into the abrupt bluff or precipitous 

 cliff, but everywhere impressing and almost op- 

 pressing the mind with a sense of vastness and 

 immensity of space that is almost overwhelm- 

 ing, till to the mind, as to the sight, in the 

 misty distance heaven and earth seem to meet 

 and mingle into one. But while this sense 

 of vastness may elevate, if not awe, the 

 beholder, I apprehend most minds in contem- 

 plating these scenes would find their greatest 

 pleasure in the varied forms and colors of the 

 vegetable world with which these plains are so 

 profusely covered. The prevailing vegetation is 

 composed of grasses, but generally of strange 

 forms and species to the emigrant from bur east- 



ern States. But after all the flowers that wave 

 in the breezes and blaze in the sunlight will be 

 objects of greatest interest. Many of them will 

 suggest old, familiar kinds, while many by their 

 novelty of form and brilliancy of colors, will im- 

 press the mind in the radical difference of veg- 

 etable forms in difterent parts of our country. 

 Two species of Allium, one with purple and the 

 other with white flowers, spread a carpet of 

 bloom over acres of land early in the season, be- 

 fore the taller plants have grown enough to ob- 

 scure them from sight. Then comes a Mallow that 

 to casual observers has the leaf of the Verbena and 

 the flower of the Portulacca, spreading its branch- 

 es on the ground, radiating from the base as a 

 centre, and spreading its brilliant crimson flow- 

 ers to a distance of a yard in every direction. 

 Similar to this in manner of growth, but entirely 

 different in form, is the Sensitive Briar, that of- 

 ten produces, from a single root a perfect bed of 

 beautiful rose-colored bloom, from five to eight 

 feet in diameter. Large patches of dwarf Helian- 

 thus, with their yellow rays expanded in the sun- 

 light, look like fields of glittering gold.' Dwarf 

 roses as fine, in both form and color, as many 

 that are cultivated with care, expand their petals 

 and shed their fragrance in countless profusion. 

 But time and space would fail me to speak of 

 the countless species that, with their white, 

 blue, crimson, and gold, join with the many 

 shades and forms of foliage to bedeck the plains, 

 while they perfume every passing breeze with 

 their balmy fragrance. It must be seen to be 

 appreciated. 



