THE 
WESTERN JOURNAL 
O F 
MEDICINE AND SURGERY'. 
MARCH, 1845. 
c. yy- * 
Art. I.— Observations on the Botany of Illinois , more especi¬ 
ally in reference to the Autumnal Flora of the Prairies. 
In a letter to Daniel Drake, M.D., &c. 
Mr Dear Sir: 
The interest which you have long taken in every thing re¬ 
lating to the Natural History of the Western States, and the 
desire which you have so frequently expressed to connect the 
study of Botany with the pursuit of medicine, will, I trust, 
be a sufficient apology for mv addressing these observations 
to you. Having, moreover, very recently yourself traveled 
over a part of the country to which they refer, you will be 
the better enabled to judge of their correctness. 
In a tour which I took through the State of Illinois, a few 
years previous to your own, I had the pleasure of being ac- 
1 
