Plantce Lindheimeriana. 239 



considerable resemblance to that of the southern United 

 States. But south of the Brazos, and still more south of the 

 Colorado, the character of the vegetation changes ; it assumes 

 the peculiarity of the flora of the Rio Grande valley, which I 

 have tried to characterize in Wislizenus's Report. The flora 

 of the Rio Grande connects the North American with the 

 Mexican f'ora, and has also many peculiar plants of its own, 

 some of which have for the first time been distributed in Lind- 

 heimer's collections : such are the interesting Rutosma, the 

 only American Rutacea known ; Galphimia linifolia, the most 

 northern Malpighiacea; several shrubby Mimosese ; an ever- 

 green Rhus ; Sophora speciosa ; the Eysenhardtia ; a number 

 of Nyctaginaceoe ; the Dasylirion, and many others enume- 

 rated in this catalogue. The ligneous plants become shrubby 

 and often thorny, and here the chaparals, so famous in north- 

 ern Mexico, make their first appearance. 



" Towards the northwest the granitic soil produces a num- 

 ber of plants, which indicate a connection with the flora of 

 New Mexico, and again with that of our western plains. 



" In the neighborhood of New Braunfels the effects of 

 cultivation on the distribution of plants are already apparent. 

 Helianthus lenticularis, Verbesina Virginica, Croton ellipti- 

 cum, Nycterium lobatum, different Cenopodiacece and Ama- 

 ranthaceae are becoming very common in cultivated places ; 

 but others, Digitaria sanguinalis, for example, so common in 

 eastern Texas, have not yet made their appearance. In 

 Cedar woods Leria nutans, in damp bottom woods Dicliptera 

 brachiata, on dry prairies the small blue Evolvulus, are getting 

 much more abundant ; while Pinaropappus roseus, Fedia 

 stenocarpa and others are much rarer than they used to be in 

 the first years of the settlement of the country. 



"In the catalogue of the collections of 1843 and 1844, 



