6 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 
nn ne ee ee ee Lan a ae 
On this trip we found our magnifying glass of more use than the binocu- 
lars, and discovered the beauty of such tiny flowers as the horsemint, which 
had individual green blossoms spotted with purple. The pink-tinged, green- 
ish-white flower bracts, because of their size, render the real flowers quite 
inconspicuous. And the individual flower of self-heal or prunella, a com- 
mon plant, is as beautiful in color and structure as a purple orchid. We 
also were fascinated with the queer ‘green-apple’ flower of the Euphorbia 
dentata, which as it matures rises on a stem and assumes a russet ‘blush’ 
on one cheek. 
This article should be entitled an “Introduction” as we find that each 
time we visit the prairie area something new and unexpected shows up. It 
may be the sight of a red fox, or finding two types of small lizards, or the 
large ripe pokeweed whose crimson staining berries we brought. home for 
our bird feeder, or the towhee which sang like a dickcissel, that make the 
trip memorable. We find each trip has a quality of newness, of expectation 
and discovery. 
If these few remnants of our prairies are doomed to destruction because 
of land-use practices and lack of interest by conservation authorities to 
preserve them, it would seem to me a very worthwhile undertaking for 
some group such as the Illinois Audubon Society or Friends or Our Native 
Landscape to sponsor ecological studies of the area so that at least the 
knowledge of our native prairie flora and fauna might be preserved. Better 
still, our organization, in cooperation with the Nature Conservancy and 
similar groups, would do well to support a movement to establish this area 
as an Illinois Prairie State Park. 
Explanation of Map 
The township roads are usually laid out in mile squares. Some of them 
are gravel roads, some sand, and some so little used as to be mere sand- 
tracks overgrown on both sides with shrubbery. Routes 113-S and 17 are 
narrow black tops. The figures S-1, S-2, etc., refer to country schools now 
abandoned as such and used chiefly for dwellings. These may serve as use- 
ful landmarks, as roadmarks and other signs of identification are mostly 
lacking. The S part of the figure is located on the side of the road where 
the building stands. The letters B.S. locate the boy scout cabin; across 
is a pump marked P. The larger creek emptying into the Kankakee at 
Custer Park is Horse creek; the one by the scout cabin is Terry creek, 
and the dotted creek in the southwest corner of the map is Granary creek 
which flows west. North of the town of Essex is a cemetery, shown as a 
square with a cross in it. The railroad is the Wabash line. 
S-1 Robinson School S-7 Essex Center School 
S-2 Grey School S-8 Mosier School 
S-3 Yates School S-9 McGillivray School 
S-4 Evans School S-10 Joyce School 
S-5 Milling School S-11 Bassett School 
S-6 Vining School S-12 Sauerman School 
320 N. Elm Street, Itasca, Illinois 
