each nearly touching the ground ; the buckeyes, which are very 

 beautiful trees, the black walnut, butternut, and larger than any of 

 those mentioned, rivalling the very largest of all our trees, the syca- 

 more and tulip-trees, and more rarely in the southern part of the 

 state two small trees, the two species of Bumelia or southern buck- 

 thorn. Besides the maples and oaks some of the largest trees found 

 in Illinois are the cotton-wood, linden, red, green, blue, white and 

 black ash, wild cherry, the various species of Carya, the American 

 and red elm and some others. Many of these trees are found of 

 very much larger size than is common in our New England forests, 

 especially such as grow on the bottom lands. Here maples, syca- 

 mores, cotton woods, etc., from a hundred to a hundred and fifty 

 feet in height, and six to ten feet diameter at the ground are not 

 uncommon, and now and then these dimensions are considerably 

 exceeded. Even the sassafras, which in New England is a small 

 tree, sometimes grows to a height of seventy feet. This species 

 I have seen spring up as a second growth and so completely cover 

 several acres as to exclude almost every other tree or shrub. The 

 willows are well represented all over the state, though I have never 

 seen them covering very wide tracts, as in some parts of the 

 country. ^ Both on the lowlands along the borders of small 



in similar localities clumps of wild apple are found. Both of these 

 trees are very beautiful when in bloom, especially when together, 

 the pure white of the plum and the pink of the apple blending 

 finely while the delicious fragrance of the latter perfumes the air 

 far and near. The birch, so commonly found in New England 

 woods, is rarely found in Illinois, and only one species, the red 

 birch, is found at all. Evergreens, which constitute so marked a 

 feature in many landscapes, are often wholly wanting in Illinois 

 scenery. The red cedar is found sparingly in many parts of the 

 state, and on rocky ridges in the Northern counties the white 

 cedar grows. Sometimes, too, the white pine and dwarf juniper 

 are seen. One more species completes the list of conifer*, the 

 bald cypress, which grows along the Ohio and Mississippi, in the 

 Southern counties where it occupies great swamps, its straight 

 trunk towering for a hundred and fifty feet above the ground. 

 This tree is very valuable for timber, though from its habits and 



