126 NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
first observed in the barren region now traversed; and the shrubby 
Atriplex (n. 109) was the most characteristic and abundant plant, 
furnishing almost the only fuel to be obtained. Thus far the country 
was a comparative level, or rather rolling prairie, rising gradually from 
1,000 to more than 4,000 feet. On the 27th of September the base 
of the mountain chain was reached, an outlyer of the Rocky Mountains, 
and attaining in the Raton Mountains an elevation of 8,000 feet. 
West of these, in the dim distance, the still higher Spanish peaks 
appear, whieh have only been visited very cursorily by the naturalists 
of Major Long's Expedition in 1820. Scattered Pines are here seen 
for the first time on the Rio de los Animos, which issues from the 
Rocky Mountains. Several large perfectly level tracts were crossed, 
which at this season exhibited no sign of vegetation; while, in other 
localities of a similar description, nothing could be seen but a decum- 
bent Opuntia. The sides of the Raton Mountains were studded with 
the tall Pinus brachyptera, Engelm. (n. 381) and the elegant Pinus 
concolor (n. 828). Descending the mountains, the road led along 
their south-eastern base, across the head-waters of the Canadian. 
* On the 11th of October Mr. Fendler obtained the first view of the 
valley of Santa Fé, and was disagreeably surprised by the apparent 
sterility of the region where his researches were to commence in the 
following season. The mountains rise probably to near 9,000 feet 
above the sea-level, 2,000 feet above the town, but do not reach the 
line of perpetual snow, and are destitute, therefore, of strictly alpine 
plants. Their sides afford the two Pines already mentioned and Pinus 
“The Rio del Norte, twenty-five or thirty miles west from Santa Fé, 
is probably 2,000 feet lower than the town, and spring consequently 
opens earlier there; but its peculiar Flora is meagre. On its sandy 
banks a few interesting plants were obtained, and others in places 
where black basaltic rocks rise suddenly from the river. 
“South and south-west of Santa Fé, a sterile, almost level plain 
extends for fifteen miles, which offers few resources for the botanist. 
Opuntia clavata was found exclusively here; besides this, Opuntia 
arborescens, O. pheeacantha, Cereus coccineus, some Grasses, and in some 
localities the Shrub-Cedar (n. 834), are the only plants seen on the 
wide plains. To the west and north-west of Santa Fé, a range of 
gravelly hills thinly covered with Cedar and the Nut-pine (n. 830) 
offers a good botanizing ground in early spring. The valleys furnished 
