Letters to a Friend 



Scotland. Had Hugh Miller seen it there, he 

 would not have called regalis the prince of Ba- 

 lich ferns. I think that I have seen specimens 

 of the ostrich fern in some places of Canada 

 which might rival my Osmunda in height, but 

 not in beauty and sublimity. 



I was anxious to see Illinois prairies on my 

 way home ; so we went to Decatur, or near the 

 centre of the State, thence north by Rockford 

 and Janesville. I botanized one week on the 

 prairie about seven miles southwest of Peca- 

 tonica. I gathered the most beautiful bouquet 

 there that I ever saw. I seldom make bouquets. 

 I never saw but very few that I thought were 

 at all beautiful. I was anxious to know the 

 grasses and sedges of the Illinois prairies and 

 also their comparative abundance ; so I walked 

 one hundred yards in a straight line, gathering 

 at each step that grass or sedge nearest my foot, 

 placing them one by one in my left hand as I 

 walked along, without looking at them or en 

 tertaining the remotest idea of making a bou 

 quet. At the end of this measured walk my 

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