
8 THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 
Raising their heads above the foliage of that miniaturé grove 
of wild mandrakes are a few specimens of the Yellow Ladies' 
Slipper ( Cypripedium pubescens) , and below them in stature, 
but of superior beauty, we find the Showy Orchis (Orchis 
spectabilis). In the groves of the "river bottom" are to be 
found our New England violets and buttercups, and other 
species of the same genera which are peculiarly Western, and 
with them are Phloxes, Erythroniums and other plants equally 
worthy to be mentioned, but their names would occupy too 
much space. The elegant Collinsia verna must, however, 
not be omitted, nor the flaming Red-bud, which is now clothed 
only with its garlands of purple flowers, and rivals in its 
dazzling splendor some of ‘our choicest exotics. 
In August the prairies put on their gold and purple when 
the Rudbeckias, Helianthuses, Silphiums and other allied 
genera, appear in flower in about eighteen different species, 
all having purplish or purple disks and yellow rays. In con- 
trast with these, the purple Cone-flower, Echinacea, displays 
its long drooping purple rays, and more showy than these are 
the long purple racemes of several species of Liatris. Suc- 
ceeding these come the Asters and Eupatoriums of different 
hues, and the Solidagos or Golden-rods and kindred cómpos- 
ites of about twenty-five species. Finally in November the 
Geradias and Gentians close the season of botanizing on the 
prairies of Illinois. 

THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW. 
BY AUGUSTUS FOWLER. 
_ Tus bird arrives at the eastern part of Massachusetts 
usually between the twenty-fifth of May and the first of 
June, departing for the South in the latter part of August. 
Not arriving until the season has far advanced, it is, conse- 
 quently, the last of the family of swallows to visit its breed- 



