FIELDBOOK OF ILLINOIS WILD FLOWERS 
shade for prairie flowers and hence the broad-leaved shade 
plants are absent from the grasslands. The level prairie surface 
is not well drained, and hence the soil in early spring is too 
wet for many spring flowers. A little later, however, the prairie 
violets come in, and late in spring the fields may be pink with 
phlox and nodding wild onions, while nearby are the pale blue 
spikes of the wild hyacinth and the golden clumps of the 
puccoons. 
By midsummer an abundance of plants will have overtopped 
the grasses and opened their flowers in the full sunlight. Among 
the conspicuous ones are the white and purple prairie clovers, 
the milkweeds, the wild morning glories and the verbenas. 
Late summer brings its mobs of the daisy family, which includes 
the purple ironweeds and blazing stars, the white and purple 
asters, and the yellow flowers of the goldenrods, compass plants, 
coneflowers and sunflowers. Thus the beauty of the spring 
flowers of the forest 1s surpassed by the gorgeous display of the 
prairies in July and August. 
Other flower homes.—Among the floral displays found in 
other communities are the marsh marigolds and spring cress of 
the stream side, the violets and yellow buttercups of the flood- 
plains, and the water lilies of the ponds and lakes. All the 
communities are worth careful study, and will disclose to the 
student some insight into the ways of nature and repay the 
observer with pictures of varying beauty. 
PLANT STRUCTURE 
A, VEGELATIVE 
The three fundamental kinds of vegetative parts possessed 
by flowering plants are roots, stems and leaves. These parts 
. are a means of reproduction in many plants, but more generally 
they are concerned with growth and the preservation of the 
individual. 
Roots.—The true, scientific definition of a root differs 
markedly from the ideas about roots held by people in general. 
It will serve our purpose here, however, to observe in a general 
way how roots serve the plant, so that essential ideas of what a 
root is and does may be gained. 
Roots generally are descending structures dividing at ir- 
regular intervals, having a protective structure over the growing 
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