PLANTS NOV-E thurberian.t:. 299 



the same localities furnished Glossopetalon spinescens* Veskaria purpurea, &c., while 

 large tracts in the valley were covered with the bright yellow flowers of Actinella 

 Richardsonii. Towards the end of March an excursion was made to the Hueco INIoun- 

 tains, about thirty miles east of the Rio Grande. The country between is an undu- 

 lating sandy plain, Avith but scanty vegetation. A few miles before reaching the 

 mountains occur what are termed the Hueco Tanks ; these are huge piles of granite 

 boulders rising abruptly from the plains. They are in two unequal masses, between 

 which the northern road from San Antonio passes. These ' tanks ' are of importance 

 to travellers by that route, as they are the only watering-place, though a precarious 

 one, for a long distance. Large quantities of water collect during the rainy season in 

 the interstices of the rocks, where, being sheltered from evaporation, it often lasts 

 through the dry summer. About the ' tanks ' grew the Texan Ungnadia speciosa, just 

 coming into flower ; Pentstemon Fendleri, Corydalis aurea, besides the plants common 

 about Magoffinsville. In a sheltered corner a few specimens of Dryopetalon runcina- 

 tum. Gray, were gathered. A visit to the mountain beyond afibrded little beside what 

 grew at the ' tanks.' C^mopterus moutana, C. Fendleri, Townsendia scricea, and a few 

 other species, were collected here. 



" In April the party moved from Magofiinsville to the Copper Mines. From the 

 former place to Dona Ana, a distance of sixty miles, the road lies along the valley 

 of the Rio Grande, crossing an occasional spur of table-land. Dithyrea WisUzeni, 

 Astragalus triflorus, Sophora sericea, and Nasturtium obtusum were abundant. The 

 road crosses the Rio Grande some twenty miles above Doila Ana. This portion of the 

 route is over an exceedingly barren country. A stunted variety of Delphinium aziireum, 

 Oldenlandia humifusa, and the ever-present Larrea Mexicana, were observed. The 

 latter plant is common everywhere upon sterile table-lands ; it is first met with low 

 down in Texas, and continues beyond the Colorado of the West. The disagreeable 

 odor it emits has given it the name of ' Creasote Plant ' among Americans ; and 

 it receives the merited epithet of Hideondo (Stinking) from the Mexicans. It is used 

 by the latter for heating their large mud ovens ; the great quantity of resin it contains 

 causing it to burn with a fierce flame, while the air of the whole neighborhood is filled 

 with a stench, which, to one unaccustomed to it, is almost insupportable. 



" At the new settlement of Santa Barbara, about fourteen miles from the crossing, 

 we leave the valley of the Rio Grande. The road thence to the river Mimbres is tor- 



* The fiuit of this plant is follicular, being dehiscent down the ventral suture only. The seeds examined 

 were all destitute of an embryo, as in the specimens gathered by Mr. Wright and Dr. Bigelow. — A. G. 



