OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. / 



reach the line of perpetual snow, and are destitute, therefore, of strict- 

 ly alpine plants. Their sides are studded with the two Pines already 

 mentioned, with Pinus JlexiliSj &c. 



" The Rio del Norte, twenty-five or thirty miles west from Santa 

 Fe, is probably two thousand feet lower than that town. Its flora is 

 meagre; but some interesting plants were obtained on its sandy banks, 

 or on the black basaltic rocks, which in other places rise directly from 

 its brink. South and southwest of Santa Fe, an almost level and ster- 

 ile plain extends for fifteen miles, which supports little vegetation, ex- 

 cept four or five Cactece., some Grasses, and here and there a bush of 

 the Shrub Cedar. To the west and north there is a range of gravelly 

 hills, thinly covered with Cedar and the Nut Pine. The valleys be- 

 tween the hills appear to have a fertile soil, but cannot be cultivated for 

 want of irrigation. They furnished some very interesting portions of 

 Mr. Fendler's collection. 



" By far the richest and most interesting region about Santa Fe, for 

 the botanist, is the valley of the Rio Chiquito (little creek) or Santa Fe 

 Creek. It takes its origin about sixteen or eighteen miles northeast of 

 the town, from a small mountain lake or pond, runs through a narrow, 

 chasm-like valley, which widens about three miles from Santa Fe, and 

 opens into the plain just where the town is built. Below, the stream is 

 almost entirely absorbed by the numerous irrigating ditches, which are 

 most essential for the fertilization of the otherwise sterile fields. Most of 

 the characteristic plants of the upper part of the creek and of the moun- 

 tain-sides are those of the Rocky Mountains, or of allied forms ; some of 

 whicli, such as Atragene Ochotensis or alpina, Draba aurea, &c., have 

 never before been met with in so low a latitude (under 36°). 



" Mr. Fendler made his principal collections from the beginning of 

 April to the beginning of August, 1847, in the region just described. 

 At that time, unforeseen obstacles obliged him to leave the field of his 

 successful researches. He quitted Santa Fe on the 9th of August, 

 followed the usual road to Fort Leavenworth, which separates from the 

 ' Bent's Fort road ' at the Mora River, and unites with it again at the 

 ' Crossing of the Arkansas.' The first part of the route from Santa 

 Fe to Vegas leads through a mountainous, wooded country, of much 

 botanical interest, crossing the water-courses of the Pecos, Ojo de Ber- 

 nal, and Gallinas. From Vegas the road leads northeastwardly through 

 an open prairie country, occasionally varied with higher hills, as far as 

 the Round Mound (6,655 feet high, according to Dr. Wislizenus). The 



