Pe HelGme ALU esr br Oo Ne es Waly red AlN 4) 
to the garden coral-bell, and evening primrose in great profusion. Yellow 
cone-flower (Lepachys pinnata) was just commencing to bloom and in a 
wet spot we found colic root (Aletris farinosa). This last plant I under- 
stand has become scarce through use for medicinal purposes. We also found 
the tuberous Indian plantain (Cacalia tuberosa), and some few species 
of insignificant orchids of the lady’s tresses type. North of the town of 
Essex a mile or more, on the east side of the road, there is a large area of 
prickly pear cactus which we found in full and beautiful yellow bloom on 
the twenty-fifth of June. About this time of year we found the wild pe- 
tunia (Ruellia strepens) with lavender-blue flowers about two inches long. 
One July at the end of the month we took a trip down to Custer Park 
for the express purpose of seeing how many of the prairie flowers we could 
find. Altogether we identified, or had identified for us by Dr. Steyermark 
of the Chicago Natural History Museum from our sketches, about sixty 
species of flowers. We found the partridge pea quite abundant, three spe- 
cies of vervain (V. stricta, V. hastata, V. augustafolia), figwort, fog-fruit 
and a type of “heavenly blue” morning glory (Ipomoea hederacea) ; star 
bell-flower, tick trefoil quite abundant, and blazing star (Liatris spicata). 
Along a certain ditch by a rather well-traveled road we found cardinal 
flowers growing in profusion. Here, contrary to the usual habitat, these 
flowers grew in the sun and were so crowded together that the individual 
flowers could not be seen for their intense and dazzling shade of red. We 
found the whorled, swamp and poke milkweeds, mountain mint, and Ameri- 
can germander which was almost through blooming; two types of compass 
plant, iron-weed, a pink-tinged bindweed, monkeyflower, fringed and purple 
loosestrife, Culver’s root, and rattlesnake-master, a typical but now uncom- 
mon prairie flower. Bergamot, parthenium, black-eyed Susan and woodland 
sunflower were old friends which added to the variety; while agrimony, 
false dragon-head and meadowsweet were not so common. Here, too, were 
boneset, purple candyroot and horsenettle; spiderwort, ground bean, New 
England aster, and thimbleweed; tall guara, starry catchfly, horsemint, 
Virginia tickseed; Helianthus occidentalis, Oxypolis rigidior, and Coreopsis 
trysteris. 
I believe the “find” of the trip was a large patch of meadow beauty 
(Rhexia virginica). This quite uncommon plant was found along the road 
on which the scout cabin is located. Just after jogging west over the creek 
and then south again, we discovered the blossoms in the southeast corner 
of this field. John Burroughs writes of this plant as follows in his “River- 
BY ee (p21 3 )i3 
“Parts of New England have already a midsummer flower nearly as brilliant, and 
probably far less aggressive and noxious, in meadow-beauty, or rhexia the sole northern 
genus of a family of tropical plants. I found it very abundant in August in the country 
bordering on Buzzard’s Bay. It*was aenew flower to me, and I was puzzled to make it 
out. It seemed like some sort of scarlet evening primrose. The parts were in fours, the 
petals slightly heart-shaped and convoluted in the bud, the leaves bristly, the calyx-tube 
prolonged: but the stem was square, the leaves opposite, and the tube urn-shaped. The 
flowers were an inch across, and bright purple. It grew in large patches in dry, sandy 
fields making the desert gay with color: and also on the edges of marshy places. It 
eclipses any flower of the open fields known to me farther inland. When we come to 
improve our wild garden, as recommended by Mr. Robinson in his book on wild gardening, 
we must not forget the rhexia.”’ 
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