SOME OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS OF CALCASIEU PARISH, 
LOUISIANA. 
BY J. M. LINDLY. 
Calcasieu Parish is the largest county in the state of Louisiana. It 
is about sixty miles east and west, and about fifty miles north and south, 
and is located in the southwestern part of the state. It adjoins Texas 
on the west, and is separated from the Gulf of Mexico on the south by 
only one intervening county. It is bounded on the north by Vernon and 
Rapids Parishes; on the east by St. Landry, Acadia and Vermilion 
I’arishes; on the south bj' Cameron Parish; and on the west by the state 
of Texas. The Sabine river forms its boundary line on the west. Bayou 
Nezpique and the Mermenteau river from the greater part of its eastern 
boundary. 
The Calcasieu river enters the Parish near the northeast corner and 
flows southwesterly, receiving several small tributaries from the west. 
The county is generally timbered except in the southeastern part, which 
is a natural prairie. 
It was my good fortune to spend the winter of 1893-4 in the little town 
of Welsh in the midst of this prairie region, which is about thirty miles 
in diameter. Ten years prior thereto, this prairie was practically 
unoccupied, and served as a range for wandering herds of cattle. 
About 1886 northern emigration set in and farm houses began to dot 
the prairie. Land at that time could be bought for twelve and one-half 
cents an acre, but now sells from twenty-five to fifty dollars per acre. 
This prairie is now given to diversified farming, the main crop being 
rice, with cotton, corn and sugar cane as minor paying crops. About 
two or three years ago petroleum of superior quality and in great abund- 
ance was found at Welsh and its neighboring town of Jennings on the 
east. This latest development of its resources has given this locality 
more than state-wide prominence. The little vilage of Welsh in 1894 
had a population of two or three hundred. Now it claims twelve hun- 
dred. 
This prairie lies just west of that part of Louisiana that Longfellow 
immortalized in his poem’ of “Evangeline”. 
“On the banks of the Teche, are the towns of St. 
Maur and St. Martin. * * * ^ 
Beautiful is the land, with its prairies and 
forests of fruit-trees : 
Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the 
bluest of heavens 
Bending above and resting its dome on the 
"Walls of the forest. 
They who dwell there have named it the Eden 
of Louisiana.” 
Again, 
“Slowly they entered the Teche, where it flows 
through the green Opelousas.” 
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