BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 147 



Late one September, after snow had fallen twice, I made two or 

 three excursions np among the high summits of the Sierra Sangre de 

 Cristo, and was surprised to find a great number of plants in blossom 

 in shaded locations and under rocks where the snow had not melted 

 away earl}'^ enough in the summer so as to give them a good start. 

 They seemed bound to live their life out even if they did have a hard 

 time of it and it took a longer time than all summer. Primula Par- 

 ryi, frozen in blossom, was growing under cascades among ice-cov- 

 ered rocks. Aquilegia cscrulea full of flowers, was standing in snow. 

 Adoxa, Gentiana frigida, En'geron, Saxifraga and many others were 

 caught in full bloom by the Alpine winter. During some winters an 

 extraordinary amount of snow falls and drifting among the high peaks, 

 the following summer may not be long enough and warm enough to 

 uncover the plants growing beneath, and they may not even begin to 

 grow that year. After a winter of little snow and small drifts soon 

 melted away by a warm summer, barren ground that may not have 

 seen light upon it for years, is uncovered and an ancient drift has 

 a wide border of flowerless ground. — T. S. Brandegee. 



The Distribution of the North American Flora, by Sir J. D. Hook- 

 er. — In the American Naturalist for March there is a reprint of this 

 lecture delivered by Sir J. D. Hooker last spring before the members 

 of the Royal Institution of Great Britain. It will be remembered 

 that the lecturer visited the United States during the summer of 1877, 

 and in connection with Dr. Gray piade a botanical cross-section of 

 the continent, noting particularly the geographical distribution of 

 plants. The regular report of tliis survey will appear in the forth- 

 coming eleventh report of the U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey of the 

 Territories, and until that report is ready for distribution we will have 

 to be satisfied with such casual information as the distinguished au- 

 thors choose to give us. 



The lecture begins by stating the fact of the immigration of plants 

 from one continent to another, and then proceeds at once to a con- 

 sideration of the physical conformation of America and the effect it 

 has had upon the distribution of plants. 



In the United States the lecturer observes five well defined merid- 

 ional belts of vegetation, viz: the great eastern forest region, extend- 

 ing from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi; the prairie region; 

 the Rocky Mountain region; the Sink region, remarkable for its dis- 

 play of sage-bush and saline plants; and the Sierra Nevada region 

 with its gigantic coniferous forests. The first region is very closely 



