eautiful red fruits, _Clematis Virginiana, Polygonum, Convolvulus, and
other vines, these weedy herbs attempt to overtop the bushes."

"We now enter upon the illimitable prairie which lies before us, the
fertile prairie, in whose undulating surface the moisture is retained;
this waits for cultivation, and will soon be deprived of its flowery
attire, and bear plain, but indispensable grain. Those who have not yet
seen such a prairie should not imagine it like a cultivated meadow, but
rather a heaving sea of tall herbs and plants, decking it with every
variety of color.

"In the summer, the yellow of the large _Composite_ will predominate,
intermingled with the blue of the Tradescantias, the fiery red of the
Lilies, (_Lilium Philadelphicum_ and _Lilium Canadense_,) the purple of
the Phlox, the white of the _Cacalia tuberosa, Melanthium Virginicum,_
and the umbelliferous plants. In spring, small-sized plants bloom here,
such as the Anemone, with its blue and white blossoms, the Palmated
Violet, the Ranunculus, which are the first ornaments of the prairies in
spring; then follow the Esculent Sea-Onion, _Pentaloplius longiflorus,
Lithospermum hirtum, Cynthia Virginica,_ and _Baptisia leucophaea_.
As far as the eye reaches, no house nor tree can be seen; but where
civilization has come, the farmer has planted small rows of the quickly
growing Black Acacia, which affords shelter from the sun to his cattle
and fuel for his hearth."

"We now enter the level part of the forest, which has a rich black soil.
Great sarmentous plants climb here up to the tops of the trees: wild
Grapes, the climbing, poisonous Sumach, (_Rhus toxicodendron,_) and the
vine-like Cinque-foil, which transforms withered, naked trunks into
green columns, Bignonias, with their brilliant scarlet trumpet-flowers,
are the most remarkable. The _Thuja occidentalis,_ which may be met
with in European gardens, stands in mournful solitude on the margins of
pools; here and there an isolalod Cedar, (_Juniperus Virginiana_)
and the low Box-tree, (_Taxus Canadensis_) are in Illinois the only
representatives of the evergreens, forests of which first appear in the
northern part of Wisconsin and Minnesota."

"Flowers of the most brilliant hues bedeck the rivers' banks; above
all, the _Lobelia cardinalis_ and _Lobelia syphilitica_, of the deepest
carmine and cerulean tinge, the yellow _Cassia Marilandica_, and the
delicate _Rosa blanda_, a rose without thorns; also the _S