XIII. 



Plants Nov^ Thurberian^ : The Characters of some New Genera and S2)ecies of 

 Plants in a Collection made by George Thurber, Esq., of the late Mexican Boun- 

 dary Commission, chiefly in Netc Mexico and Sonora. 



Bv ASA GRAY, M. D. 



{Communicated to the Academy, August 9, 1854.) 



In the progress of the late Boundary Commission for fixing the line between the 

 territories of the United States and Mexico, botanical collections were made, at vari- 

 ous times, by Dr. C. C. Parry and Mr. Schott, under the command of Colonel Emory ; 

 by Mr. Thurber and Dr. J. M. Bigelow% attached to the immediate x^arty of Mr. Com- 

 missioner Bartlett ; and by Mr. Charles Wright, who, having formerly made, at his own 

 charges, a botanical exploration from Eastern Texas to El Paso, through a region till 

 then unvisited by any naturalist, was about to revisit New Mexico, when, in the spring 

 of 1851, he was attached by Colonel Graham to his surveying corps. 



A large portion of Mr. "Wright's collections has been elaborated by myself, and pub- 

 lished in two memoirs, by the Smithsonian Institution.* The plants gathered by Dr. 

 Parry, ISIr. Schott, and the more extensive collections made by Dr. Bigelow, were con- 

 signed to the able hands of my friend Dr. Torrey ; and a detailed account of the 

 whole is expected to make an important part of Colonel Emory's general report of the 

 scientific results of this boundary survey. 



Not a few of the new plants described by me from Mr. Wright's collection were 

 gathered at the same time, or in some cases even previously, by Dr. Bigelow or by 

 Mr. Thurber : but, as Dr. Bigelow's plants were not communicated to me, except in a 

 few cases, where his name is mentioned in connection with them, and as all of Mr. 



* Plantce WrightianffiTexano-Neo-Mexican£c. Part I. 1850 - 52. Part II. 1853. 



VOL. V. NEW SERIES. 41 



