195 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 



pean glycerine mount is better than that in Canada balsam, which 

 we more commonly use. There is a greater sharpness of outline giv- 

 en to the object. Among the instruments we miss from the German 

 Laboratories is the polarizer as a common microscopic adjunct. For 

 the study of starch and for tracinij the laticiferous vessels in many 

 cases, it is of the most essential service. The Jackson eye piece mi- 

 crometer gives way to the simple round disk in the eye piece and for 

 all practical purposes is quite as good and much less expensive. It is 

 fair to say that, among lower plants, the same reliance we place upon 

 exact spore measurements is not found ; the evidence based upon them 

 being considered as confirmatory rather than conclusive ; and proba- 

 bly with good reason. During the short winter days a large portion 

 oi the work done is by the aid of well shaded gas light, the intensity 

 of which is more or less modified by colored chimneys ; the flamec 

 being round and steady from the Argand burner. All theory aside, I 

 cannot see but that it was as good as that from the coal oil which we 

 insist upon as being essential. — J T. Rothrock. 



Some New Mexican Ferns. I.— In order that we should gain 

 a correct knowledge of the flora of any section, some knowledge of 

 its soil and climate is essential ; a proposition which would seem to 

 apply specially to the ferns. 



The whole of New Mexico is a table-land, with superimposed 

 mountains. The country along the rivers is usually very sandy, as 

 are some of the plains l^etween the mountain ridges. Others of these 

 plains are gravelly, while others consist of a fine, deep soil, which, 

 however, is always mixed, more or less, with gravel. So far as my 

 observation goes, no ferns whatever grow in any of these localities. 

 They are to be found only in the mountains. I have not found one 

 fern growing on level ground, or in sandy or alluvial soil. Under 

 these circumstances, we should expect to find the general character of 

 the ferns very different from that of our eastern species. The differ 

 ence is allowed to become still greater by the great difference in cli- 

 mate. Here, when it rains, it does little else, and when it dries, ev- 

 erything dries, and keeps on drying uiUil it begins to ram again. Not 

 having been here in the spring, I have been unable to gain any exact 

 information as to the extent to which the ferns develop at that season. 

 The most that I have been able to learn is that when there is an abun- 

 dance of rain or snow during the winter and spring, the ferns spring 

 up. Certain it is, that before the beginning of the rainy season in 

 July, they are all as dry, and apj^arently dead, as though there had 

 been no period of spring growth. Within a month after the beginning 

 of the rains, they have made a good start, and within another month, 

 the most of tliem have shown considerable fruit. A few, however, do 

 not mature their spores until late in the fall, appearing to banter Old 

 Wmter with the challenge, ''Catch me if you can!" These conditions 

 combine to strip the ferns of that freshness and delicacy, or, I may 

 say, that crisp fni'^ilily, which characterize our eastern species. Those 

 which are not hairy or scaly are thickish and glaucous. The only 

 eastern species that I can novv recall as likely to give one an idea of 

 the /'t'/// f/z5-<';///'Z'' of these species is Chcilanthes 7'estita, Swz., or, to a 



