62 
VIEWS OF LOUISIANA. 
south. The cypress, magnolia, ever green oak, and a number 
of other trees, common in the state of Louisiana, have been am* 
ply described by Barton and Michaud. 
Amongst the wild fruits of Louisiana, the plum has been 
celebrated. They are in great abundance.* Several species de¬ 
serve to be transplanted to our gardens; the yellow plum is deli¬ 
cious. Mulberries are very abundant, both on the Mississippi, 
and a considerable distance up the Missouri. The woods and 
prairies are every where overrun with strawberry vines; the 
fruit is excellent. Le Haut Missouri , (the upper Missouri, the 
name given it by the French traders) surpasses the other parts 
of the territory, in the variety of wild fruits; plums, cherries, 
currants and a great variety of berries. 
Of flowers, and herbaceous plants, peculiar to this country,f 
there exist a great variety, but want of botanical skill, and the 
plan assumed for these cursory views, prevent me from entering 
into detail. White clover, grows wild in many parts of the coun¬ 
try. In the upper Missouri, the plains are filled with hyssop; 
near the mountains there is a plant resembling flax4 Hunters 
* Note by Mr. Bradbury Amongst the species of plums in Lou¬ 
isiana, and particularly at some distance up the Missouri, there is none 
more interesting than the prairie plum, (primus chickasaJ which lit¬ 
erally covers tracts of ground, of many acres in extent, and produces 
fruit so abundantly, as to bend down to the earth with its weight. 
f The natural consequence of the difference of habit, arising from 
the prairies, and flint knobs, which of course give birth to distinct tribes 
in the vegetable kingdom; many of which, could not exist in the um¬ 
brageous woods of the eastern states. Bradbury. 
$ From the description of this plant, it seems probable, that it is a 
new species of linum ; and although perennial, differs from linumperenne v 
The number of plants, made use of by the aborigines, for medical 
purposes, is much greater than might be supposed, by those unacquaint¬ 
ed with the skill, in the healing art, of these untaught children of na¬ 
ture. But not having, as yet, had an opportunity of examining the con¬ 
tents of their medicine bags , I am not prepared to give a scientific ac¬ 
count, nor of the plant with which they produce the beautiful dye, in 
their ornaments ; it is, however, a golium, and I think a new species. 
Bradbury. 
[This was written before Mr. Bradbury ascended the Missouri.! 
