140 The Plant World. 



develop marked differences in the evaporating power of the 

 atmosphere. 



As southern Arizona has two rainy seasons annually, so it 

 has also two windy seasons, and these alternate with those. The 

 wind is alm.ost always at hand to intensify the drouth that a 

 promised rain did not assuage. The Rincons form the first 

 reallv high elevation in the trail of the trade-wind as it sweeps 

 up from the Gulf of California. It has gathered heat from and 

 lost moisture to thousands of square miles of desert on the way. 

 Even on calmer days, it comm.only plays in n:id-day currents, 

 like a blast from a furnace, from the heated plains below. In 

 the afternoon it is usually replaced by a breeze which is markedly 

 cooler, but which has probably lost little of its dessicating power. 

 While rarely of high velocity, it quite regularly develops daily 

 maxima and usually declines only on the approach of night. 

 The west slope of the northern Rincons, being the one more par- 

 ticularly examaned, lies back between projecting ridges, giving 

 it a Hue-like channel of ascent. Up over the entire, gentle 

 western m.ountain side, from the desert foothills to the pine-clad 

 crest, for several m_onths of spring and autumn, alniost daily 

 plays, over every slope, this wind, and its power as a com.ponent 

 of the plant environm.ent can hardly be over-estinaated. 

 Tucson, Arizona, 



March 30, 1910. 



TWO NEW ZEALAND BOTANICAL REPORTS. 

 By S. B. Parish. 



Dr. Cockayne's recent reports on the botany of New Zealand, 

 prepared in connection with the work of the Land Department, 

 and published by the Colonial Government, while primarily of 

 local value, contain m^uch to interest and instruct students every- 

 where. Their value is enhanced by the very numerous photo- 

 gravures, depicting the physiognomy and the ecological charac- 

 teristics of that far-off land. 



The first of these reports is concerned with the botany of 

 Stewart Island, * which lies fifteen miles south of the South 

 Island of New Zealand, and has an area of 425,390 acres. It is 



♦Report of a Botanical Survey of Stewart Island. By L. Cockayne. Ph. D., etc. Welling- 

 ton 1909. Pp. 68. Photogravures 43. Map. 



