BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 117 



Should this result, when tested by a wider range of observa- 

 tion, hold good, it will afford a very valuable and easily obtainable 

 isothermal, and also enable one to estimate the height of the tim- 

 ber line from thermometrie stations at the bases of mountain ranges. 

 — Henry Gannett in Am. Jour. Sci. 



A Colossal Album of Living- Ferns, by J. G. Lemmon— Ex- 

 plorers in mountainous countries sometimes encounter what the 

 frontiers-men call "rock-traps 1 '; if on the Pacific coast, "box-can- 



y° ns - 



Generally terminating a ravine, and with high precipitous 

 walls on either hand, they bar farther ascent, and the explorer 

 has no choice but to retreat. 



If, however, the party is a lover of Nature he is apt to pause 

 and examine these cul-de-sacs with more or less of interest and 

 profit. These box-canyons sometimes may be likened to immense 

 half-opened books, resting on end and slightly inclined against a 

 mountain. 



Occasionally a tier of them may be found encircling the top of 

 a mountain like a revolving book-rack in a reference library. In 

 these ponderous tomes of Nature's original scriptures what solid, 

 fundamental, pre-historic facts may be read by the educated mind. 

 The geologist is sure to discover remarkable placements of rock- 

 strata, or the no less interesting omission of normal relations. The 

 paleontologist may discover shells, casts of fossil parts of animals 

 and plants as he shatters the rocks with his hammer. 



If in a reputed region of the precious metals, the first to explore 

 minutely, these open volumes, is the eager, intrepid prospector, 

 gladly availing himself of the chance to examine without the aid 

 of pick and shovel, the exposed rocks to trace, if any there be, the 

 indications of ore. The zoologist will often find rare insects, rep- 

 tiles, birds or beasts haunting these secluded places. 



But if a stream of water cascades down the chasm or even if 

 enough trickles over the walls to keep the interstices' moist, the bot- 

 anist, more than all others, will be certain to find much of inter- 

 est in the peculiar flora which these conditions always produce. 



It is such a secluded, magnificent and well-watered natural 

 conservatory, like a colossal album of living plants, that the writer 

 discovered last week, here in the heart of the lofty, rock-ribbed, 

 heavily-forested Huachuca mountains of southern Arizona. The 

 results of the adventure may justify a detailed description. 



It was about It a. m. of a hot August day, when as I turned 

 an angle of a deep ravine, a stupendous gorge opened before me not 

 20 rods distant, its dark, vertical walls over 2,000 feet high, seamed 

 and furrowed laterally and vertically; these containing rank on 

 rank of plants of various size and hue, while over all water dripped 

 in a shower of pearls. 



The grandeur of the scene fixed me to the spot for a moment 



