Fayette County, Illinois - Chapter 21: Flora, 1878

H HEN we gaze out over a landscape, the eye is pleased with its chequered beauty and loveliness; here and there are bright flowers, clingiog vines, green verdured hill and dale; majestic forest-trees, whose towering heads have withstood the blasts and storms of many winters, - these were created not only to please the eye and beautify the world, but the cereals and grasses were made to furnish food for man and beasts. Our article will particularly treat of the niore valuable woods utilized in the mechanic arts, and the grasses, plants, vegetables, and flowers most beneficial to man, aod particularly those which are natives of the county. Many species of the native vegetable kingdom have fled; the Buffalo grass, which only grew on parts of the prairies, and almost wholly the large pampas grass, have given place to blue-grass, which, in places where domestic cattle feed, is rapidly and quietly displacing all others. The plants are many and rare, some for beauty and some for medicine. The pink-root, the columbo, the ginseng, the boneset, penny¬ royal, and others are used as herb3 for medicine. Plants of beauty are the phlox, the lily, the asclepias, the mints, golden rod, the eye-bright gerardia, and hundreds more which adorn the meadows and brook-sides; besides are climbing vines, the trumpet creeper, the bitter sweet, the woodbine, the cle¬ matis, and the grape, which fill the woods with gay festoons, and add grace to many a decaying monarch of the forest. The trees and grasses, one so lordly and permanent, the other so humble and transient, are the true glories of the county. The oak, with at least its twenty varieties; the hickory, with as many more species; the thirty kinds of elm, from the sort which bear leaves as large as a man's hand, to the kind which bear a leaf scarcely larger than a man's thumb-nail; the black walnut, so tall and straight; the hackberry; gum tree, black and sweet; the pecan; the tulip; the giant cotton¬ woods, and hundreds more attest the fertility of the soil and mildness of the climate, while the blue-grass in its ten varieties, the timothy and red-top, with clover so abundant in succuleoce, affords excellent pasturage, and opens a fine field for the dairyman or stock raiser.

Arissema triphyllum - Indian turnip; Tyhlatifolia - cat-tail; Sagittaria variabilis - arrow-head; Cypripedium pubescens - yellow lady's slipper; Cypripedium candidum - white lady's slipper, common.

Quercus rubra - red oak; Quercus palustris - water oak, common; Quercus tinctoria - black oak; Quercus nigra - black-jack ; Quercus imbricaria - laurel oak; Quercus prinus - chestnut white oak; Quercus castanea - yel¬ low oak, not common; Quercus alba - white oak, common; Quercus obtusiloba - post oak, abundant.

Carya glabra - pig-nut hickory; Quercus macrocarpa - overcup oak, com¬ mon ; Carya tomentoea - white-heart hickory; Carya alba - shell-bark hick¬ ory ; Carya olivseformis - pecan.

Ulmus fulva - red elm ; Morus rubra - red mulberry ; Urtica dioica - stinging nettle; Ulmus Americana - white elm, abundant Datura stramonium - Jamestown weed; Asclepias cornuti - milk weed ; Fraxinus Americana - white ash; Fraxinus sambucifolia - black ash; Phy¬ tolacca decandra - poke weed; Amarantus hybrid us - pig weed; Rum ex crispus - sour dock; Sassafras officinale - sassafras ; Benzoin odoriferous - fever bush; Marrubium vulgare - hoarhound; Sol an urn nigrum - night¬ shade; Physalis visoosa - ground cherry; Monarda didvma - horsemint; Nepetacataria - catnip; Hedeomapulegioides - pennyroyal; Diospyros vir-

K 'niana - persimmon; Plantago major - plantain; Verbascum thapsus - roulin, common; Cirsium lanceol&tum - common thistle; Lappa major - Bur¬ dock; Taraxacum densleonis - dandelion, common, introduced during the last forty years.

Erecthites bieracifolia - fire weed; Ambrosia artemisinfolia - rag weed ; Xaothium strumarium - cockle bur; Bidens bipinnata - Spanish needle; Bidens chrysanthemoides - beggar ticks; Manta ootula - May weed; Leucanthemum vulgare - ox-eye daisy, common.

Eupatorium perfoliatum - thoroughwort, not common; Cornus Florida - dogwood; Sambucus Canadensis - elder, very common; Ribes cynosbati - wild gooseberry ; Pyrus coronana - wild crab, abundant Crategus, several species; Rosa setigera - climbing rose ; Rubus lucida - dwarf wild rose; Rubus villosus - blackberry, abundant Asimina triloba - papaw, auite abundant along the creek bottoms; Nelumbium luteum - May apple, abundant in shady places.

Sanguinaria Canadensis, or bloodroot; Lepidium Virginicum - wild pep¬ per-grass ; Portulaca Oleracea, or purslane; Tilia Americana, or linden, not abundant; Zanthoxylum Americanum - prickly ash, scarce; Rhus typhina - sumach; Rhus toxicodendron - poison oak; Vitis festival ip - summer grape, common; Vitis cordifolia - frost grape; Ampelopsis quinquefolia - Virginia creeper ; JEsculus pavia - buckeye, scarce ; Acer saccharinum - sugar maple ; Acer dasycarpum - white maple; Negundo aceroides - box elder; Baptisia tinctoria - indigo weed, not abundant; Cercis Canadensis - red-bud; Gymnocladus Canadensis - Kentucky coffee-tree; Gleditechia triacanthos - honey locust: Prunus Americana - red plum; Prunus chicasar - Chickasaw plum ; Prunus ecrotina - wild cherry; Fragaria Virginians - wild strawberry ; Rubus occidentals - black cap raspberry; Rubus Canadensis - dewberry, common.

In the above list we have given the scientific as well as the English names, believing such a course to pursue in the study of plants more beneficial to the student or general reader. There may be some plants omitted, yet we think the list quite complete.