USA > Iowa > Lucas County > History of Lucas County, Iowa containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc > Part 40
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No. 95 .- " Have you heard the song of the field-sparrow? If you have lived-in a pastoral country, with broad upland pastures, you could hardly have missed him. Wilson, I believe, calls him the grass-finch, and was evidently unacquainted with his powers of song. The two white lateral quills of his tail, and his habit of running and skulking a few yards, in advance of you as you walk through the fields, are sufficient to identify him. Not in meadows or orchards, but in high, breezy pasture grounds, will you look for him. His song is most noticeable after sundown, when other birds are silent, for which reason he is aptly called the vesper-spar- row. The farmer following his team from the field at dusk catches his sweetest strain. His song is not so brisk and varied as that of the song- sparrow, being softer and wilder, sweeter and more plaintive. Add the best parts of the lay of the latter to the sweet vibrating chant of the wood sparrow (Spizella pusilla) and you have the evening hymn of the vesper-bird-the poet of the plain, unadorned pastures. Go to those broad, smooth, uplying fields, where the cattle and sheep are grazing, and sit down on one of the warm, clean stones, and listen to this song. On every side, near and remote, from out the short grass, which the herds are cropping, the strain rises. Two or three long, silvery notes of rest and peace, ending in some subdued trills or quavers, constitute each separate song. Often you will catch only one or two of the bars, the breeze having blown the minor part away. Such unambitious, uncon-
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scious melody! It is one of the most characteristic songs of Nature. The grass, the stones, the stubble, the furrow, the quiet herds, and the warm twilight among the birds, are all subtilely expressed in this song ; this is what they are at least capable of."- John Borroughs.
No. 110 .- "The entire change of plumage which the male of this spe cies undergoes twice a year is none the less interesting because it is so well known a fact in its economy. When the bird reaches the middle districts, which is usually not until May, the males, as a rule, are already in nearly perfect breeding attire, but in the vast majority of instances still show touches of yellowish on the belly and legs. At this period they are very conspicuous, associated in flocks, sometimes great in extent, moving restlessly about the meadows and orchards, overflowing with glad music. Their number seems out of all proportion to that of the females, but this is probably due to the silent and more retiring ways of the latter sex. They really pass through, in the vernal migration, quite rapidly, though they do not appear to be at all in a hurry, as we see them day by day. They throw themselves in a field, scatter on the ground, feeding, and at the slightest alarm, or in mere wantonness, suddenly fly en masse to the nearest tree, fence, or bush, and begin to sing, producing an indescribable medley, hushed in an instant only to be resumed. Sometimes they sing as merrily, though with less concerted action, while they are rambling in the grass. Their day-time leisure for song and food is easily explained; for they migrate at this season, almost entirely by night. Every night in early May, as we walk the streets, we can hear the mellow metallic clink- ing coming down through the darkness, from birds passing high over- head and sounding clearer in the stillness. By the middle of May they have all passed; a few, it is stated, linger to breed south of New England, but the main body passes on, spreading over that portion of the Union and the neighboring British Provinces, occupying in pairs almost every meadow. The change of plumage with the finishing of the duties of re- production is rapid and complete before the return movement is made, although this takes place in August. As far north at least as Maryland, I never saw or heard of a decidedly black individual, among the millions that repass that state late in the summer and during September. The males are, indeed, distinguishable by their superior size and a sort of dif- fuseness of tawny coloration, not quite like the cleaner and lighter pat- tern of the females, aside from the black traces that frequently persist; but the difference is not great. They are now songless-whoever heard bobolink music in the fall ?-- they have a comfortable, self-satisfied chink, befitting such fat and abandoned gourmands as they are, thronging in countless hoards the wild rice tracts and the grainfields, loafing and invit- ing their souls. So they go, until the first cold snap, that sends them into winter quarters at once-chiefly to the West Indies, but also much further
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south. They have successively filled the role of bobolink, reed-bird, rice- bird, and butter-bird. As soon as the season relaxes once more, in March, they will re-enter the United States, and do it all over again. "-Coues.
No. 111. "It does not appear that the cow-bird ever attempts to take forcible possession of a nest. She watches her chance while the owners are away, slips in by stealth and leaves the evidence of her unfriendly visit to be discovered on their return, in the shape of the ominous egg. The parents hold anxious consultation in this emergency, as their sorrow- ful cries and disturbed actions plainly indicate. If their nest was empty before, they generally desert it, and their courage in giving up a cozy home results in one cow-bird the less. Sometimes, even after there is an egg of their own in the nest, they have nerve enough to let it go, rather than assume the hateful task of incubating the strange one. But if the female has already laid one or two eggs, the pair generally settle into the reluctant conviction that there is no help for it; they quiet down after a while and things go on as if nothing had happened. Not always, how- ever, will they desert even an empty nest; some birds have discovered a way out of the difficulty-it is the most ingenious device imaginable, and the more we think about it the more astonishing it seems. They build a two-story nest, leaving the obnoxious egg in the basement. I want no better proof that birds possess a faculty indistinguishable, so far as it goes, from human reason; and such a case as this bears impressively upon the general question of the difference between reason and that faculty we designate by the vague and misleading term, "instinct." The evidence has accumulated till it has become conclusive, that the difference is one of degree, not of kind-that instinct is a lower order of reason-the arrest, in brutes, at a certain stage, of a faculty reaching higher development in man. Instinct, in the ill-considered current sense of the term could never lead a summer yellow bird up to building a two-story nest to let a cow- bird's eggs addle below. Such 'instinct' is merely force of habit, inher- ited or acquired-a sum of tendencies operating unknowingly and uniformly upon the same recurring circumstances, devoid of conscious design, lacking recognized precision, totally inadequate to the require- ments of the first special emergency. What bird, possessed of only such a faculty as this, could build a two-story nest to get rid of an objectionable deposit in the original single-story fabric? It argues as intelligent a design as was ever indicated in the erection of a building by a human being. No question of inherited tendency enters here; and if it did, the issue would be only set back a step no nearer determination, for there must have been an original double nest, the result of an original idea. Nor is this won- derful forethought very rarely exhibited; considering what proportion the double nests discovered bear to the ordinary ones brought to our notice, among the millions annually constructed, we can easily believe that the
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ingenious device is in fact a frequent resort of the birds plagued by the cow-bunting. And how can we sufficiently admire the perseverance and energy of a bird which, having once safely shut up the terrible egg in her cellar, and then having found another one violating her premises, forth- with built a third story? She deserved better of fate than that her house should at last be despoiled by a naturalist. This was a summer yellow- bird, to whom the price of passing thus into history must have seemed hard."-Coues.
No. 123 .-- " All jays make their share of noise in the world, they fret and scold about trifles, quarrel over anything, and keep everything in a foment when they are about. The particular kind we are now talking about is nowise behind his fellows in these respects-a stranger to mod- esty and forbearance, and the many gentle qualities that charm us in some little birds and endear them to us; he is a regular filibuster, ready for any sort of adventure that promises sport or spoil, even if spiced with danger. Sometimes he prowls about alone, but oftener has a band of choice spirits with him, who keep each other in countenance, (for our jay is a coward at heart, like other bullies), and share the plunder on the usual terms in such cases, of each one taking all he can get. Once I had a chance of seeing a band of these guerrillas on a raid; they went at it in good style, but came off very badly indeed. A vagabond troop made a descent upon a bush clump, where, probably, they expected to find eggs to suck, or at any rate a chance for mischief and amusement. To their intense joy, they surprised a little owl quietly digesting his grasshoppers, with both eyes shut. Here was a lark! and a chance to wipe out a part of the score that the jays keep against the owls forinjuries received, time out of mind. In the tumult that ensued, the little birds scurried off, the woodpeckers overhead stopped tapping to look on, and a snake that was basking in a sunny spot concluded to crawl into his hole. The jays lunged furiously at their enemy, who sat helpless; bewildered by the sudden onslaught, trying to look as big as possible, with his wings set for bucklers and his bill snapping; meanwhile twisting his head till I thought he would wring it off, trying to look all ways at once. The jays, emboldened by partial success, grew more impudent, till their victim made a break through their ranks and flapped into the heart of a neighboring juniper, hoping to be protected by the tough, thick foliage. The jays went trooping after and I hardly know how the fight would have ended had I not thought it time to take a hand in the game myself. I secured the owl first, it be- ing the interesting Pygmy Owl, (Glaucidium), and then shot four of the jays before they made up their minds to be off. The collector has no bet- ter chance to enrich his cabinet than when the birds are quarreling, and so it has been with the third party in a difficulty, ever since the monkey divided cheese for the two cats."-Coues.
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No. 217 .- " Mudie speaks as follows of the European bittern's voice: 'Anon a burst of savage laughter breaks upon you, gratingly loud, and so unwonted and odd that it sounds as if the voices of a bull and a horse were combined; the former breaking down his bellow to suit the neigh of the latter, in mocking you from the sky;' when the bittern booms and bleats overhead, one certainly feels as if the earth were shaking." Chaucer speaks as follows in The Wife of Bath's Tule:
' And as a bitore bumbleth in the mire, She laid hire mouth into the water doun, Bewray me not, thou water, with they soun', Quod she, to the I tell it, and no mo, Min husband hath long asses eres two.
Another notion was that the bill was put inside a reed to increase the sound; the truth is, of course, that the bird uses no means to produce its bellow but its own organs of voice. Our own bittern has no rude roar, but, as its name in most parts of the country denotes, makes a noise very much like driving a stake with an axe. It has also a hollow croak at the moment of alarm."-Endicott.
PLANTÆE .* WOODY PLANTS AND VINES.
Negudo aceroides, box elder, common; handsome.
Quercus rubra, red oak, common; excellent fuel.
Quercus nigra, black oak, abundant; valuable; medicinal; bark as- tringent.
Quercus castanca, chestnut oak; fairly common.
Quercus macrocrapa, burr oak, very common.
Quercus Phellos (?) willow oak; valuable for fuel.
Quercus tinctoria, yellow bark oak; very rare; bark astringent.
Ulmus americana,, white elm, common in bottoms.
Ulmus fulva, slippery elm, common; bark medicinal; demulcent.
* It is manifestly impossible to present the reader with anything like a complete list of the county's plants, since their nomenclature alone would require a volume of greater pro- portions than this. Three clases only have been given, the aboreous and shrubby-with a few climbing plants-and the medicinal, the latter including only the most common and best known varieties. It is a peculiarity of all science that many forms-small in them- selves-rejoice in a nomenclature the length of which is altogether disproportionate to their size. Yet such is the looseness with which popular names are used that identification is simply an impossibility, unless recourse is had to the proper botanical nomenclature- which is a sufficient apology for the introduction of these technical names. R. E. C.
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Ulmus alata, winged elm, doubtful very, more eastern.
Acer rubrum, red maple, rare; valuable in cabinet work.
Acer dasycarpum, hard maple, cultivated; valuable for sugar and fuel. Salıx tristis, (?) glaucous willow, common.
Salix lucida, shining willow, very common.
Salix petiolaris, petioled willow, very common.
Salix nigra, black willow, very rare.
Salix longifolia, long-leaved willow, very common.
Salix humilis, prairie willow, not uncommon.
Populus tremuloides, aspen, cultivated.
Populus angulata, water popular, not common; a large tree.
Populus monilifera, cottonwood, abundant; tall and large.
Platanus occidentalis, sycamore, common along streams; the largest, though not the tallest tree in the American forest; conspicuous by its whiteness.
Tilia americana, basswood, linn, common; large. Juglans nigra, black walnut, valuable in the arts.
Juglans cinerea, (?) butternut, common; medical; cathartic.
Carya alba, shell-bark hickory, common; valuable.
Carya glabra, pignut hickory, abundant; fruit bitter.
Carya amara, bitternut, valuable for fuel; common.
Betula nigra, red birch, stately tree; mild tonic; common.
Fraxinus americana, white ash, common; valuable. Fraxinus viridis, green ash, rare.
Fraxinus sambucifolia black ash, abundant; valuable for rails.
Liriodendron tulipifera, tulip tree, valuable substitute for pine; very large; bark medicinal; diaphoretic.
Gymnocladus canadensis, coffee tree, rare; fruit peculiar.
Gleditschia triacanthus, honey locust, not rare; wood heavy.
Carpinus americana, hornbeam, doubtfully referred to the county.
Alnus incana, black alder, common.
Alnus serrulata, smooth alder, doubtful; rare, if at all.
Cornus florida, cornel, abundant; very pretty; bark medical; a decided roborant.
Cornus paniculata, panicled dogwood, common; flowers white. Rhus toxicodendron, poison ivy, dangerous; easily recognized.
Rhus glabra, sumac, common; poisonous.
Rhus radicans, three-leaved ivy, rare; poisonous.
Robinia pseudacacia, locust, fragrant; valuable; common.
Sambucus canadensis, elderberry, fairly common; edible; medicinal; see below.
Corylus americana, hazel nut, very abundant; edible.
Spiræa tomentosa, hackberry, common.
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Spiræa salicifolia, meadow sweet, very common.
Morus rubra, mulberry, common; edible.
Ostrya virginica,ironwood, common along bottoms; heavy.
Rhamnus catharticus, perhaps lanceolatus, buckthorn, common; medic- nal.
Cratagus tomentosa, blackthorn, common; very tough.
Cratægus coccinea, white thorn, abundant.
Cratægus virdis, red haw, everywhere; a misnomer.
Amelanchier canadensis, service berry, common; edible; several varie- ties.
Prunus americana, wild plum, abundant; edible.
Cerasus pennsylvanica, wild red cherry, common; edible.
Cerasus virginica, choke cherry, abundant; insipid.
Cerasus serotina, black cherry, common; edible, but bitter.
Aesculus glabra, buckeye, occasional; fetid.
Asimina triloba, pawpaw, common; edible.
Rosa lucida, wild rose; everywhere; pretty.
Rosa setigua, early wild rose, prairies; beautiful.
Pyrus ioensis, wild crab apple, abundant; fruit useless unless preserved.
Ribes rotundifolium, smooth gooseberry, common; edible.
Ribes cynosbati, prickly gooseberry, abundant; edible.
Ribes floridum, wild black currant, common; fruit insipid.
Lonicera flava, wild honeysuckle, hillsides, common.
Lonicera grata (?), American woodbine; elegant, often cultivated.
Ampelopsis quinquefolia, Virginia creeper, common; harmless.
Xanthoxylum americanum, prickly ash, common; medicinal.
Vitis cordifolia, frost grape, common; edible.
Vitis aestivalis, river bank grape, abundant; edible.
Ceanothus americanus, Jersey tea; abundant on prairies.
Ceanothus ovalis, red root, pernicious; abundant.
Staphylea trifolia, bladdernut; rare.
Amorpha canescens, lead plant; abundant.
Viburnum lentago, black haw; common.
Shepherdia argentea (?), buffalo berry; fruit edible, scarlet, acid.
Cercis canadensis, red bud, common; used for dyeing.
Amorpha fructicosa, false indigo.
Cephalanthus occidentalis, button bush.
Euonymus atropurpureus, wahoo, fairly common.
Juniperus virginiana, cedar.
Celtis crassifolia, hackberry (?), common.
Celastrus scandens, bittersweet.
Symphoricarpus vulgaris, common nearly everywhere; perhaps two species.
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Rubus occidentalis, common. Rubus villosus, rare, perhaps accidental; root-bark astringent. Menispermum canadensis, moonseed, in woods.
Smilax rotundifolia? green briar; common.
The preceding list comprises all the trees, shrubs and woody climbing plants known in the county. The major part of them may be found along the bottom lands of the principal streams, or along the bluffs of the Missouri river. It will be seen that the county is well wooded with varie- ties valuable both as fuel and in the arts. The varieties are many, but, as is usual in wooded districts, a few kinds predominate. No attempt has been made to discuss the relations of the flora to that of the remainder of the state, nor to point out the few species of plants peculiar to it. The design has been to present a list-with brief notes-of the more valuable and large plants, and it is believed the county's resources, in this particu- lar, are quite fully represented by the foregoing catalogue.
There is, however, one feature that cannot be passed without comment. The flora of the county is distinctively divided in that it comprises species both of woodland and prairie habitat, i. e., its forms are found in either the one or the other location. Associated with the trees and shrubs are innumerable herbs, such as are commonly found in low or in wooded dis- tricts, and are, in the main, distinct in habitat from the plants of the higher and more exposed country. The prairie, on the other hand, is peculiarly rich in that order of flowering plants known as the Compositae. Riding across the country one may see thousands of beautiful blossoms raising their brilliant selves above the grasses that would obscure their beauty. The golden solidagos, the purple asters or the brilliant puccoons, vie with each other in claiming the attention of the passer-by. In the more moist places is to be seen the pretty pennyroyal, and by its side blossoms the invaluable boneset. Who would recognize in these brilliant white flowers, the nauseous mixtures our " grandames and aunts" were wont to prepare for us? To see the prairie in all its beauty it is needful that not one trip, but many, should be made-and let the occasion suit the season. In the earlier summer the omnipresent "nigger-head"- (Echinacea purpurea)-lifts its form as defiantly and jauntily withal as the " ox-eye" daisy for which the meadows of New England are so famous. Then, in the valleys bloom the " iron-weeds," ( Vernonia fasci- culata), while on the prairies the "rosin-weed," (Silphium laciniatum), lifts its cheerful golden face to nod knowingly at you as you pass by. Here, there, everywhere, some beautiful blossom smiles at you, and awakens feelings in your heart that only a prairie flora can. What wonder our fathers stopped here amid so much splendor-a splendor withal that marked the great fertility of the virgin soil. From early spring, when
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first appear the "Johnny jump-ups," ( Viola cucullata), and " Bird's-foot violet," (Viola delphinifolia), to late autumn, when the last aster and golden-rod succumb to Nature's inexorable laws, the prairie forms the botanist's paradise. Inviting, did you say? Aye, more than that, in- structive in the highest sense, for here some orders reach a development unknown elsewhere on the globe. Here one finds the princes of the flower realm of Nature. Cunningly, wisely, and full of a hidden, secret meaning, a thousand forms look up into the faces of pedestrians who, with repressed curiosity, and not quite willingly, tread them under foot. They are leaves of the great folio, marginal notes on the pages of the book of Nature, often and to many, and for a long period to every one, hiero- glyphs whose deciphering would repay all the requisite toil.
But very many of these plants have an infinitely greater value than that conferred by their beauty. Does some astute utilitarian mutter to himself, " Now you are getting sensible?" Wonder if he thinks of this when making grimaces at some unsavory decoction his physician has pre- scribed? Wonder if he would not rather look at than take them? Enter- ing largely into the category of medicinal plants as do many of the forms found in this country it is deemed a matter of interest to the general reader to know their habitat, their abundance and their uses. The follow- ing list is very far from exhaustive, dealing as it does with only some of the most common or most easily recognized plants that possess a medi- cinal value. Where practicable, that portion of the plant which is used is indicated, together with the nature of its action physiologically.
CATALOGUE OF COMMON MEDICINAL PLANTS,
Parmelia parietina, common yellow wall lichen; tonic.
Adiantum pedatum, maiden hair fern; common, astringent.
Veratum viride, white hellebore, common in swamps; poisonous; an energetic irritant; not safe.
Mentha canadensis,, spearmint; common stimulant and tonic.
Hedeoma pulegioides, pennyroyal; common; stimulant and carminative.
Verbascum thapsus, common mullein; emulcent, slightly narcotic. The leaves are used.
Taraxacum dens-lconis, dandelion; common; tonic and stomachic.
Eupatorium perfoliatum, boneset, very abundant; emulcent, an emetic.
Sanguinaria canadensis, blood root; abundant, diaphoretic.
Cassia marilandica, senna, common; cathartic.
Oxalis stricta, abundant; an excellent refrigerant.
Linum usitatissimum, flax, now naturalized; an emollient and demulcent.
Cimicifuga racemosa, black snake root, only the root used; it is an astringent; quite local and only in woodlands along the Missouri bluff.
Tanacetum huronense, doubtful here; tonic, leaves only.
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Polygonum incarnatum, knot-weed, abundant; roots cathartic.
Datura stramonium, Jamestown-weed, abundant; leaves and seeds nar- cotic.
Sambucus canadensis, common; the flowers are mildly stimulant and sudorfic; the berries diurectic, and the inner bark is cathartic and emetic.
Solidago missouriensis, common; the flowers reputed valuable in wounds.
Gillenia stipulacea, American ipecac, leaves emetic.
Mertensia virginica, lung-wort; the root said to be a valuable expec- torant.
Acorus calamus, sweet flag, rare, the root; tonic.
Scilla fraseri, squill, rare, the bulb; diurectic.
Arabia quinquefolia, ginseng, rare, the root; tonic.
Marrubium vulgare, hoarhound; a weak tonic.
Geranium maculata, cranesbill; root astringent.
Sabbatia angularis, American centaury; febrifuge and tonic. Achillaca millefolium, milfoil, introduced; tonic.
Cannabis americana, American hemp; hynotic.
REPTILIA. *
TOADS, FROGS, SNAKES AND TURTLES.
In the number and variety of reptiles the county is equal to any in the state. The dry prairies form congenial homes for the skinks (E. septen- trionalis); its streams are the homes of several species of turtles and ba- trachians, and its woods and fields shelter a large number of serpents. Of all the latter that are here listed, only two species, the rattlesnake (C. ter- · gemina and C. horridus), are poisonous. While local and popular tradi- tion arms most of the remaining, and especially the " blowing-viper," (Heterodon simus), with deadly powers, the fact is that without a single exception they are perfectly harmless. In the economy of farming they are beneficial, ridding the fields and gardens of many destructive forms. Of all the varieties mentioned in the following lists the toads and turtles are beyond a doubt the most beneficial to the farmer. The first rid him of many destructive insects; the latter clear his streams from dead and deleterious matters.
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