A Thousand- Mile Walk 



cover the ground with their leaves as at the 

 North. Strange plants are crowding about me 

 now. Scarce a familiar face appears among all 

 the flowers of the day s walk. 



September 29. To-day I met a magnificent 

 grass, ten or twelve feet in stature, with a 

 superb panicle of glossy purple flowers. Its 

 leaves, too, are of princely mould and dimen 

 sions. Its home is in sunny meadows and along 

 the wet borders of slow streams and swamps. 

 It seems to be fully aware of its high rank, and 

 waves with the grace and solemn majesty of 

 a mountain pine. I wish I could place one of 

 these regal plants among the grass settlements 

 of our Western prairies. Surely every panicle 

 would wave and bow in joyous allegiance and 

 acknowledge their king. 



September 30. Between Thomson and Augusta 

 I found many new and beautiful grasses, tall 

 gerardias, liatris, club mosses, etc. Here, too, 

 is the northern limit of the remarkable long- 

 leafed pine, a tree from sixty to seventy feet 

 in height, from twenty to thirty inches in 

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