Chapter 40

Chapter 40
pages 223 - 227

THE FLORA OF PEORIA AND ITS VICINITY.

     Introduction.— The following chapter was written by our townsman Dr. J. T. Stewart (on special request) for the History of Peoria.
     The reader will probably be surprised when he is informed of the great amount of unappreciated beauty in the midst of which he has lived.
     The Flora of Peoria is varied and rich. Within a compass of five miles from the Court-House may be found almost every species of plant that grows in middle Illinois, middle Indiana, Ohio, and Iowa. Probably no spot in the United States represents a greater number of species. The extraordinary fertility and variety of soil which surrounds us is of necessity prolific of species.
     The dry and sandy plateau on which the greater part of the city stands, extending from the bluff to the river and from Kickapoo creek to the Narrows, has its peculiar flora, and was, when the city was in its infancy, one grand carpet of flowers.
     The bluff, with its black prairie loam and clay sub-soil, represents, or did before it was so fully occupied with farms and gardens, the prairie flora, with all the varied forms of vegetation that cover the immense prairies of Illinois.
     Beyond, and in some places almost touching the brow of the bluff, is what is characteristically termed the Barrens. This, as every western man knows, is not a poor soil, but is neither timber nor prairie, being covered with scattering trees, is a firmer soil, containing less loam and more clay, and has quite a different flora.
     Beyond the lake is a great body of land which annually overflows, in which are many lakelets and marshes. Here is another flora, and one of unbounded richness. In this vicinity are some peat-bogs, containing many species peculiar to such localities: these in the fall are surpassingly beautiful.
     Jutting up against this bottom, the bold bluffs rise, interspersed with deep mossy glens and covered with an immense forest. The same conformation exists on this side of the river above the Narrows and below the city on Kickapoo Creek. In these localities the flora differs widely from any of which we have spoken. And here are found some of the rarest and finest specimens of beauty and elegance the world can produce. And allow me to remark, that we by no means appreciate the beauty which surrounds us. We send to the ends of the earth for flowers, and regard them as rare beauties, while we have growing wild, almost in sight of our doors, finer and more elegant ones, many of which have been sent abroad and are classed among the finest flowers by the most refined and cultivated men of Europe. Not a florist in Europe but cultivates some of the very flowers and shrubs that grow in this vicinity, prizes them highly, and places them among his choicest specimens.
     I have only space to name a few, which I do at random, all of which and many more are worthy of a place in our gardens.
     In early spring the Spring Beauty (Claytonia Caroliniana) pushes its scapes up among the dead leaves, unfolding its clusters of delicate flowers, shaded from white to rose-color and veined with purple; the Blood-root (Sanguinaria Canadensis), snow white with golden anthers; the Liverwort (Hepatica triloba), varying in its hues from whitish to blue, purple, and flesh-color, too elegant to pass by and too pure and beautiful to pluck; the Isopyrum biternatum, falsely called Anemone, rising above the rest on smooth, slender, branching stalks, with tiny white flowers; the Blue Bell (Mertensia Virginica); the Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis) ; the Larkspur (Delphinium tricorne), with its raceme of azure-blue flowers; the Anemone Caroliniana and Pennsylvanica; the Violets, whitish, blue, and yellow; the Buttercups (Ranunculus fascicularis and repens); the Crane's-bill (Geranium maculatum); the Polemonium (Polemonium reptans), easy of cultivation, with its corymbs of light-blue, bell-shaped, nodding flowers; the Phlox (Phlox reptans, pilosa, glaberrima, and bifida),— the last is rare here, but is one of the finest of the phlox family; the Painted Cup or Indian Pink (Castilleia Coccinea), a unique annual and biennial, showy and pretty; the Wild Hyacinth (Scilla Fraseri); the Shooting Star (Dodecatheon Media); the Spirea aruncus and lobata,—the lobata is the Queen of the Prairie and is well named, grows from three to six feet high, bears compound clustered panicles of peach-blossom-colored flowers — very handsome; the yellow, white and purple Lady's Slippers (Cypripedium pubescens, candidum, and spectabile),— the last is a superb flower; the Five-fingered Gentian (Gentiana quinqueflora), an annual; the Lion's Heart (Physostegia Virginiana), annual; the Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), annual; the Spiderwort (Tradescantia Virginica); the Prairie and Wood Lilies (Lilium Philadelphicum and superbum).
     Our Asters are very abundant, and some of them very beautiful. There are more than twenty species, and varieties without end.
     Some of our Golden-rods are worthy of cultivation. The Eupatorium ageritoides is an elegant, free-flowering, white, fall flower of the composite order, very hardy, preferring shady places.
     Of the ornamental vines, we have the Virgin's Bower (Clematis Virginiana); the Moonseed (Menispermum Canadense); the Bittersweet (Celastras scandens); the Virginia Creeper (Ampleopsis quinquefolia); the Trumpet Creeper (Tecoma radicans); the Dioscorea villosa, a delicate little vine growing in thickets; the wild Balsam-apple (Echinocystis lobata); and the Star-cucumber (Sicyos angulatus).
     Of ornamental shrubs there are, among others, the Wafer Ash (Ptelia trifolia); the Staff Tree (Staphillea trifolia); the Wahoo (Euonymus atrapurpureus); the Sumach (Rhus glabra and aromatica),— the former is our common sumach, and the latter is quite a pretty shrub, four to five feet high, with aromatic foliage.
     Our trees are too well known to require notice here.
     The Cyperaceae and grasses are well represented. There are as many species of grasses on a mile square here as there are in the entire South, excepting Texas and Arkansas, or the whole of New England.
     We are deficient in evergreens, having none but the Red Cedar, and it is rare. The great Ericacia family (of which the Cranberry is a representative), which is so abundant in the East and South, has but one little insignificant representative, the Monotropa uniflora.
     The Ferns are well represented, there being about twenty species, and among them some of the most delicate and elegant of the family. Other cryptogamous plants, as the Mosses, Lichens, and Fungi, are abundant.
     Unfortunately, the march of improvement, divorced as it ordinarily is in the West from fine taste and culture, is making sad havoc with our flora. It never seems to enter the minds of men owning hundreds of acres of lands to inclose a few rods for the protection of our indigenous plants. I can now call to mind but one exception, and that is worthy of honorable mention. The Superintendent of Springdale Cemetery, Capt. John H. Hall, has set apart a portion of that lovely place, which associates so much sadness and beauty, for the preservation of Nature's own flora.

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