THE COMPASS-PLANT (SILPHIUM LACINIATUM) OF THE PRAIRIES 
Arthur G. Eldredge , Photo . 
NATIVE 
PRAIRIE FLOWERS FOR OUR GARDENS 
ARTHUR G. ELDREDGE 
University of Illinois 
Onward March of Commerce and Civilization Rapidly Changing the Prairie and Destroy- 
ing its Characteristic Appearance-Our Gardens as a Haven for these Native American 
Flowers now Putting up their Brave Last Fight for Existence along Our Railroads 
ILD prairies will soon no longer exist and with them will 
pass much of the prairie flora. The close cultivation 
■ $>jk a h tillable land in the wheat and corn belt leaves 
lU little room for the sentiment of wild flowers. Nearly 
all of these flowers thrive only where fully exposed to the sun. 
Through much of this country the last stand of many of them is 
along the railroad right of way; they can rarely be found else- 
where. Here we often come upon the original Prairie Sword. 
The railway company endeavors with fire and scythe to keep 
these areas clean; but through failure to do it at regular periods 
the flowers are favored. The spring varieties bloom before the 
clean-up, so the fall varieties have a chance to grow again in 
some places. 
Along the main line of the Illinois Central we may see small 
sections illustrating what the prairie must have been like; and 
which conveys lessons to him who would plant in “natural” 
style. There are colonies of Phlox paniculata a rod square, the 
Purple Cone Flower by hundreds; along the embankment, lines 
of the Spider Lily abloom for nearly two months. Sometimes 
we see large groups of Camassia esculenta which, from the fast 
moving train, appear to be Orchids. 
To me it is a great pleasure in traveling across the prairie 
country to watch these remnants of a once beautiful flora. They 
are among the few remaining native inhabitants of this rolling 
region. It is pleasant to conjure pictures of this land glowing 
with prairie Phlox, Shooting-star, Butterfly-weed, Sunflowers, 
Asters, and masses of Prairie Rose (R. setigera) twenty to 
thirty feet across! 
The prairie region extends from Ohio to Dakota, and from 
Kansas and Missouri to Kentucky and Arkansas. It offers two 
conditions for the growth of flowers: (i) open prairie with full 
exposure to the sun and becoming rather dry in the summer; 
(2) the wooded ravines and river valleys with heavy shade and 
more moisture. Scattered over the prairie region are patches of 
woods affording conditions of growth similar to those found in 
the woods adjacent to rivers. These shaded places furnish an 
abundance of spring flowers but very few in summer. 
A journey by horse across the Illinois prairie is recorded in 
1845 by Dr. C. W. Short of Louisville, Ky., who was very much 
disappointed after the lurid accounts which had been published. 
He found a great amount of coarse rank grass, nearly as high as 
a man on horse-back, and large colonies of one flower rather 
than a profusion of species. 
The limiting range of a flower is often very wide, the outer 
limits frequently representing isolated specimens in an un- 
favorable region; and many flowers that are abundant on the 
prairie are sprinkled all the way to the Atlantic — which sug- 
gests the probability that some of these, at least, may be adapted 
to planting in our gardens as, indeed, a few already have been. 
Nearly all of the woodland flowers bloom before the trees are 
in full foliage. The most conspicuous are Spring Beauty; 
Dutchman’s Breeches; Squirrel Corn; Bluebells; May Apple; 
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