188 
Short on the Botany of Illinois. 
ally on the road-side, or in fence-corners, a few plants' ol 
Verbena stricta and Vernonia corymbosa. 
Twenty miles west of the Wabash at this point, we met 
with the first prairie in a state of nature; and from this, ex¬ 
tending northward to the Lakes, and westward to the Missis¬ 
sippi, they continue, increasing in magnitude, and interrupted 
only by occasional groves of timber, so as to occupy by far 
the largest portion of the central, eastern, western, and north¬ 
ern portions of the State of Illinois. 
On fairly entering the prairie region, and reaching the cen¬ 
tre of one of these immense natural meadow's, the view pre¬ 
sented 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 un¬ 
bounded profusion with which a few species occur in certain 
localities, than the mixed variety of many different species 
occurring any where. Thus from some elevated position in a 
large prairie the eye takes in at one glance thousands of acres, 
literally empurpled with the flowering spikes of several spe¬ 
cies of Liatris , among which the most predominant are L. 
spicata , L. squamosa. L. scariosa , L. cylindracea , and L. pyc- 
nostachya. In other situations, where a depressed or flatten¬ 
ed surface and clayey soil favor the continuance of moisture, 
a few 7 species of yellow-flowered Coreopsis occur in such pro¬ 
fuse abundance as to tinge the entire surface with a golden 
burnish. The species of this genus more commonly met with 
in such situations, were Coreopsis trichospcrma , C. senifolia , 
C. tripteris , C. pahnata , &c., &lc. This peculiarity of an 
aggregation of individuals of one or more species, to some¬ 
thing 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 
