Frederick Law Olmsted 



of the Horsechestnut, of deep blue and lilac bloom, with 

 a perfume like that of grapes. 



THE WESTERN PRAIRIES 



The impression as we emerged, strengthened by a warm, 

 calm atmosphere, was very charming. The live-oaks, 

 standing alone or in picturesque groups near and far upon 

 the clean sward, which rolled in long waves that took, on 

 their various slopes, bright light or half shadows from the 

 afternoon sun, contributed mainly to an effect which was 

 very new and striking, though still natural, like a happy 

 new melody. We stopped, and, from the trunk of a superb 

 old tree, preserved a sketched outline of its low gnarled 

 limbs, and of the scene beyond them. 



Had we known that this was the first one of a thousand 

 similar scenes, that were now to charm us day after day, we 

 should have, perhaps, spared ourselves the pains. We were, 

 in fact just entering a vast region of which live-oak 

 prairies are the characteristic. It extends throughout the 

 greater part of Western Texas, as far as the small streams 

 near San Antonio, beyond which the dwarf mesquit and its 

 congeners are found. The live-oak is almost the only tree 

 away from the river bottoms, and everywhere gives the 

 marked features to the landscape. 



The live-oaks are often short, and even stunted in growth, 

 lacking the rich vigor and full foliage of those further east. 

 Occasionally, a tree is met with, which has escaped its share 

 of injury from prairie burnings and northers, and has grown 

 into a symmetrical and glorious beauty. But such are 

 comparatively rare. Most of them are meagerly furnished 

 with leaves, and as the leaf, in shape, size, and hue, has a 

 general similarity to that of the olive, the distant effect is 

 strikingly similar. As far West as beyond the Guadalupe, 

 they are thickly hung with the gray Spanish moss, whose 

 weird color, and slow, pendulous motions, harmonize pecu- 



