3 . 
prairies to densely timbered forests. The vegetation of these three 
districts is, of course, essentially different; but apart from the 
presence of absence of trees, which constitute the grand feature of 
distinction, the annual and suffruticose plants are widely different, 
and indeed in many respects entirely dissimilar. Even the productions 
of the open prairies vary greatly as the surface of the prairie may be 
high, rolling, rich and dry, or low, flat, wet and clayey. 
"On fairly entering the prairie region, and reaching the centre 
of one of these immense natural meadows, the view presented to the 
eye of a novice in such scenery is one of the most pleasing sort. 
But beautiful, imposing, and even grand, as is this spectacle, I 
must own that, in a botanical point of view, I was disappointed. The 
flora of the prairies—the theme of so much admiration to those who 
view them with an ordinary eye—does not, when closely examined by the 
botanist, present that deep interest and attraction which he has been 
led to expect. Its leading feature is rather the unbounded profusion 
with which a few species occur, in certain localities, than the 
mixed variety of different species occuring anywhere. Thus, from 
some elevated position in a large prairie, the eye takes in, at a 
glance, thousands of acres literally empurlped with the flowering spikes 
of several species of liatris; in other situations, when a depressed or 
flattened surface and clayey soil favor the continuance of moisture, a 
few species of yellow-flowered coreopsis occur m such profuse 
abundance as to tinge the entire surface with a golden burnish. This 
peculiarity of an aggregation of individuals of one or more species 
to something like an exclusive monopoly of certain localities, 
obtains even in regard to those plants which are the rarest and least 
frequently met with; for whenever one specimen was found, there 
generally occurred many more m the same immediate neighborhood." 
