l66 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



city on a wet day, as he walks like a person learning to walk on roller 

 skates, expecting his feet to fly out from under him, while at the 

 same time the mud hangs on like glue. They are paving all the 

 streets in different ways, some planked like a sidewalk. If they did 

 not do so the streets would be impassable in vv^et weather. 



Botany — I consider botany and entomology the two best sub- 

 jects to study out here as there are so many specimens of both sub- 

 jects to be found on the prairie. The first wild flower to show itself 

 in the spring is the prairie crocus. It sends up a tender stem bear- 

 ing the bud, growing about four inches high ; then it opens out into 

 a pretty flower, pink inside and mauve outside. The flowers are 

 about an inch and a quarter across and about an inch deep. After 

 the flower has been open a few days it dies and the plant goes on to 

 produce its leaves, and lives through the summer. It sends up a 

 long stem on which the seed are produced. When in seed the 

 stem resembles a window brush on a small scale, each seed having a 

 long feathery hair about an inch long attached to it. When the 

 crocus is in bloom the prairie looks pretty ; after having our long 

 winter, the prairie is covered with bloom, and without any exaggera- 

 tion I can say there at least three blossoms for every square foot of 

 prairie, so you can imagine what it must look like But it lasts only 

 for about ten days. Towards sunset, when the plant is in seed, 

 a fine sight is seen by looking towards the setting sun, — the 

 millions of fuzzy bunches of seg ds give the ground a misty appear- 

 ance. I cannot in this paper give the dates the diff'erent plants 

 blossom on, but will make special notes next summer. The buffalo 

 apple or prairie plum is a flat growing plant. It lies on the ground 

 and sends out its branches in all directions so that the plant is 

 circular ; I understand it belongs to the pea family. Its flower is a 

 red pink, and appear in bunches, it resembles the pea flower only 

 smaller. Its fruit is about an inch long, or perhaps, a little over, its 

 width is about half its length. To eat them raw before the skin gets 

 tough the taste is exactly like eating pea pods. Some say that if 

 picked young they make good pickles. The fruit is merely a thick 

 pod divided into two equal apartments containing seeds, and be- 

 come a mere dry shell in the fall. The wild orange hly is a very 

 nice plant. It grows up straight for about twelve inches and then 

 blossoms. The leaves are few, being attatihed to the main stem 



