50 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE NATIONAL HERBARIUM. 



isolutc*! mountain I'anj^os of loss extent rising- up out of the midst of 

 west Texat], New Mexican, and Ari/onian deserts, which mi^^Iit be 

 even more prolitic of Ttelea species. The Grand Cannon of the Colo- 

 rado and its tributary g'orges seem to abound in them, all liitherto 

 undescribcd; and the same is true in respect to other extensive dis- 

 tricts, al] quite different one from another, in Utah, New Mexico, 

 Colorado, and California. 



The distributions of Mexican plant specimens, so copiously made by 

 ]\Ir. l*ringle and by Dr. E. Palmer during forty years past, include 

 no small number of Ptelcas, all of which, until within the last year, 

 have been sent forth without any critical examination at all under the 

 one convenient name of 1\ anguHtlfolla^ while of that species itself 

 neither of the noted explorers and collectors named appears ever to 

 have obtained a specimen. 



At different times wuthin the last twenty-five years the present 

 w^riter has g-jithered in several parts of New Mexico, Arizona, and 

 California members of tliis genus which he was never able to identify, 

 and which arc herein lirst described. 



At the National Herbarium there is special wealth of material in 

 this as in inan}^ another genus, whi(*h has been procured, as it were, by 

 special agents who have gone into many a remote flnd obscure cor- 

 ner of the West and brought back plant specimens of great value. 

 By wise prevision of the curators in botany, Mr. Coville and Dr. 

 Rose, the collecting of plants — at. least one set— has been for years 

 enjoined upon field parties going from the Dei?artment of Agricul- 

 ture, the (xeological Survey, the Hureau of Fisheries, etc., to the 

 interior of the remoter territories; and as a result of such work our 

 plant collection is ricli beyond comparison in plants collected by this 

 means, which are to l)e found in no other herbarium, w^hether of our 

 own country or any other. 



To the great wealth of spccijnens thus gathered here, 1 have been 

 al)le to add, l)y courteous loan, the Ptelea specinuMis fi'om tiie her- 

 barium of Capt. Jolin Donnell Smith, of Baltimore, those belonging 



to the Parrv Herbarium from tlie Iowa State CoUeiiC, and those of 

 the California Academy at San Francisco, ni which also occur the 

 ty[)cs of several new S[)ecies. All of these last, receivinl nmcli more 

 than a year since, now by virtue of ni}' prolonged retention of them 

 have escaped the sad fate that befell almost the whole of that priceless 

 herbai'ium in the rt^cent earthquake and fire. 



In the earliest hours devoted to close inspection and comparison, it 

 be(*ame manifest that the real characters for species in Ptelea had 

 never yet been indicated or apprehended. In other genera of wood}' 

 growths, the oaks, for example, he wlio would distinguish and arrange 

 the species could do notliing were he to leave unnoticed and unnoted 

 the color and other characteristics of their trunks, their branches, and 



