S. Mis. 53. 17 



what is believed to be the true nature of the special sense nerves, as 

 contrasted with other cranial or the true spinal nerves, and the con- 

 formity of the other cranial nerves to the common spinal type. 



The next communication has the following title: "Plant;e Wrighti- 

 ange Texano, Neo Mexicano, Part 2. By Dr. Asa Gray, Professor of 

 Botany in Harvard University." 



It has been stated in two of the preceding reports that a small ap- 

 propriation was made for botanical explorations in Texas and New 

 Mexico, and tliat the results had been placed in the hands of Dr. Gray 

 for scientific investigation. The first memoir on this subject was de- 

 scribed in the last report. It has been printed, and copies distributed 

 to all the working botanists in this country and Europe. It also forms 

 a part of the third volume of the " Smithsonian Contributions." 



The object of the present memoir is to give a scientific account of 

 the collections made by Mr. Wright, under the direction of Col. J. D. 

 Graham, U. S. Topographical Engineers, and Major W. II. Emory, of 

 the Boundary Commission, in J\ew Mexico and in Eastern Texas, 

 during the summer and autumn of 1851, and the spring and early 

 part of the summer of 1852. 



The description of the plants from this region was previously carried 

 as far as the order conqwsitfe. In the present paper. Dr. Gray gives a 

 similar account of the recent collections up to the same point, and re- 

 serves the other portions of these collections made by Mr. Wright, with 

 the remainder of the undescribed plants of Fendler and Lindheimer, 

 to be described in a general memoir. One portion of the collection was 

 made from July to November, from El Paso to the Copper Mines of 

 Santa Rita del Cobre, in the southwestern part of New Mexico; and 

 thence into the northern part of the Mexican State of Sonora, as far as 

 Santa Cruz, returning to the Copper Mines by way of Guadalupe 

 Pass, and thence back to El Paso. The plants obtaimd during this 

 tour are of exceeding interest, and comprise a larg(.'r portion of new 

 species than any other collection that has fallen into Dr. Gray's hands. 

 Another portion was obtained in the vicinity oi' El Paso and the 

 rancho of F route ra, and down the Rio Grande f()r sixty or seventy 

 miles; also, up the valley of the river as far as Camp Fillmore, and 

 thence into the Orange mountains, wliich bound the valley on the east. 

 Another collection was made in a hasty excursion to Lake St. Marie and 

 Lake Gustman, in Chihu'ihua. These several collections afford many 

 novelties; no botanist having previously explored this region at tlie 

 same season of the year. 



It is expected that a fiill account of the topograph}^ and productions 

 of this country will be given in the reports of Colonel Graham and 

 Major Emnry. 



The interest which attaches to the results of explorations of this 

 kind is not confined to the botanist, but extends to the physical geogra- 

 pher and the political economist. An accurate description of the 

 botany of a region is a sure guide to a knowledge of its power of pro- 

 ducing and sustaining vegetable and animal lite, and consequently of 

 its value in a commercial and political point of view. 



Dr. Leidy, of Philadelphia, has presented a memoir on. the extinct 

 2 



