360 Prairie Flora 



closely pastured. The showy prairie flowers are gone, and even the 

 grasses have been mostly destroyed. Along the roadsides and on 

 railway rights of way a few individuals of the original flora are still 

 to be found, but they are being rapidly driven out by the introduced 

 blue grass and by European weeds. 



No ecological survey of this region conducted according to mod- 

 ern ecological methods, has ever been made, and it does not seem pos- 

 sible to make such a survey now. It may however be best to put 

 on record some notes regarding this flora, based partly on recollection 

 and partly on herbarium material. The writer greatly regrets that 

 he feels incompetent to write accurately about the most important 

 constituents of this flora — the prairie grasses. 



For convenience this flora may be considered in different groups 

 or areas characterized somewhat as follows: 



1. The upland prairie flora, found on high rich rolling well 

 drained land. 



2. The slough or marsh flora on land covered by water, or at 

 least wet for the greater part of the year. 



3. The prairie meadow flora usually a zone area around a marsh, 

 or rich low lands between low hills. 



4. The alkali flora on low saline level prairies where vegetable 

 growth is much stunted. 



5. The valley flora where there is good drainage but plenty of 

 moisture. 



6. The bluff flora where the soil is dry, and where xerophytic 

 plants abound. 



7. The rock flora on gneiss or granitic rocks and on the sur- 

 rounding shallow soil where the conditions are still more xerophytic. 



8. The bog flora found around prairie springs. 



Let us consider these floras, or different plant societies, somewhat 

 in detail. 



1. The High Rolling Prairie Flora. 



The greater part of this region consists of high rolling prairies. 

 These are now all under cultivation, so that the characteristic prairie 

 plants are destroyed. These notes refer to what the observant trav- 

 eler might have seen thirty years ago. With the opening of spring 

 the first plant to attract the attention of the traveler would doubtless 

 have been the pasque flower, Pulsatilla hirsutissima as we have been 

 in the habit of calling it, or Anemone potens wolfgangia, if we are 

 bound by the Vienna agreement. It opens its pale lilac petals early 

 in April on dry ground everywhere, and is almost equally conspic- 

 uous later on in its fruiting stage when it flings to the breeze its 

 silvery silken styles. Ranunculus rhomhoideus is found opening its 

 golden petals low down among the gray grasses of the previous year. 

 At about the same time of the year the diminutive Carex pennsylvanica 

 is seen blooming everywhere. It is in May, too, that the holy grass, 

 HierocJiloe odorata, earliest of grasses, sends up its sweet scented pan- 

 icle in little depressions of the prairie. The deep purple flowers of 

 the prairie violet, Viola pedatifida, now begin to appear on the hills. 

 The yellow flowers of the star grass, Hyproxis hirsuta, brighten up the 

 springing grass. The prairie blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium campestre, 



