Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 V13.djvu/226

 so profusely decorated with flowers, as seen from {158} a distance, can scarcely be described. Several large circumscribed tracts were perfectly gilded with millions of the flowers of Rudbeckia amplexicaulis, bordered by other irregular snow-white fields of a new species of Coriandrum. The principal grasses which prevail are Kœleria cristata of Europe, Phalaris canariensis (Canary bird-*seed), Tripsacum dactyloides, which is most greedily sought after by the horses, Elymus virginicus (sometimes called wild rye), a new Rotbolia, one or two species of Stipa and Aristida, with the Agrostis arachnoides of Mr. Elliott, and two species of Atheropogon. The common Milfoil, and sorrel (Rumex acetocella), are as prevalent, at least the former, as in Europe. In these plains there also grew a large species of Centaurea, scarcely distinct from C. austriaca; and along the margin of all the rivulets we met with abundance of the Bow-wood {Maclura aurantiaca), here familiarly employed as a yellow dye, very similar to fustic.

6th.] To-day I went five or six miles to collect specimens of the Centaurea, which, as being the only species of this numerous genus indigenous to America, had excited my curiosity. All the lesser brooks and neighbouring springs were now already dried up, and the arid places appeared quite scorched with the heat. Still there prevailed throughout these prairies, as over the sea, a refreshing breeze, which continued for the greatest part of the day. The swarms of musquitoes, which prove so troublesome along the banks of the Mississippi and the Missouri are here almost unknown, and never met with except on the immediate alluvial borders of the rivulets.

In my solitary, but amusing rambles over these delightful prairies, I now, for the first time in my life, notwith