The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-06-04
THE TEXAS PRAIRIES.
At This Season Of the Year They Are
Sea of MuItitudInous Flowers.

At This Season of the Year They Are
Sea of MuItitudlnous Flowers.
Nothing can be prettier than the prai-
RES after a rainy winter or spring The
sunlight Is so soft, golden and mellow;
the atmosphere so crystalline and balmy;
the sky, with the wooly-white gulf clouds
sailing overhead, so blue; the air, wan
toning SO .gleefully over the green waves
you are almost intoxicated with the wine
OF life, and then your mood is in conson-
ance with the wind. the sky, the sun
hight and all your SURROUNDINGS
Then the wealth and multitudinous va
rleIy OF the noWers and their varied forms
and their different colors Oh. that /
neld the pen of a Burroughs while. SO
that I could adequately describe these
Wild Southern blooms! Not that they
are SO gorgeous in hue; not that they
are so odd In shape; but they are SO va
of SO many colors. and. above all, because
at times they lie in such masses that
acre on acre glow in one color, blue as
rns SKY or purple as Roman emperor 5
rope, or yellow as the golden sun
Here may be seen hundreds of acres
OF SunnoWers, OF low, many branching,
small hoWered variety, covering the
ground with a dazzling, yet soft splendor,
like mantel of cloth of gold; there the
prairie will be purple with verbenas. Now
huge patches OF blue flower whose name
Is unknown to me, seem to reflect back
the sky, as if a piece had there fallen.
Further on, an enormous area Is of deli
cately pinky hue, from being covered
with flower somewhat like an abutilon
IN shape, but of faint rose shot through
with thin, tiny veins of yellow. And this
web OF three colors was embroidered over
with hosts of wee, starry. white flowers
with pink tips; tiny yellow buttons golden
stars. delieat blu cups, and w;1h many
othrs that now but vaguely remember.
since 1T was in 1895 that l saw this mira
Gle of the rain and spring
One flower, from its Oddity Of color
and shape, / remember well. 1t grew
In that year of vision on the prairie and
when rains fan it still blooms there for
aught l know. 1t Powered on stalk
similar to that of sunfower q do not
remember its leaf) but only six inches
high. The shape Of its blossom was ex-
actly that of the flower of helios. but il
was of a dark, dusky red. with broad
brown black ring in the center.
Th1s flower reminds me of another seen.
at Brownsville, Tex One day In Deem
way to jack rabbit hunt, when the
flower caught my attention and 1 stopped
my horse to notice it. 1t was a good
remembrance of this curiosity of Flora s
realm. A long, slender, very slender stem
that must have been at least eight feet
high, shot up into the air, and at about
six inches from the end it curved grace
fully over into an almost semi-circle,
and on the end was the single enormous
flower: There. was not a single leaf on
the stalk, and only that solitary bios
som. 1t was the very spit" of sun
flower, immense in size, but with the
petals of bright scarlet color, and at
the distance from which saw it the tex
ture appeared to me to be very coarse,
almost woody in fact. Indeed, at first
thought 1t was an artificial flower made
of red flannel! But after seeing it sew
eral times l became satisfied that it was
real flower made some inquiries and
found that it was a Mexican plant, some
what rare, at least at Brownsville, ana
called La Flor de Ia Noche Buena" (the
flower of Christmas eye1 This napoo
from what could learn, seemed to have
been derived from the belief that the
plant only bloomed at that date. I noticed
1t about the 10th of December. Some
months later l came across a paragraph
in a Texas paper that spoke Of this very
same flower. and called it by the same
name. 1t certainly was a queer. odd
thing, and If 1t Is unknown, might be q
curiosity Of the garden worth having
William FL. Hale, in the Country Gentle
man.