80 



BULLETIN 56, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



Mr. Holzner moved to the first camp of the surveying party, located 

 on the left bank of the Rio Grande opposite to the initial monument 

 of the survey. Daily visits were made to that camp. (Plate IX, 

 fig. 2.) Also visited El Paso in November, 1892, and in June, 1893. 



Flora of EI Paso. — A-^aluable collections of plant life were made 

 here. 



As usual, the river is bordered by a line of cottonwoods and 

 willows, with arrowwood, Baccharis, screw bean, and mesquite cov- 

 ering the adjacent land. (Plate VI, fig. 2.) The higher sandy 

 country supports the usual scant growth characteristic of Sonoran 

 deserts, including the creosote bush, Ephedra^ Kmberlinia^ and a long 

 list of cacti. The Texas matrimony vine {Lycium torreyi Gray) is a 

 pretty feature of the old, but now abandoned, army post of Fort Bliss. 

 The neighboring Franklin Mountains (altitude 2,175 meters, or 7,136 

 feet), though rocky, bare, and uninviting, have a more varied flora, 

 of which cacti, aloe, £>asylirion, yucca, and sumach are among the 

 most conspicuous components. About the summits of the highest 

 peaks, where there was enough soil, were found the serrate-leaved 

 Dasylirion, a low; jaicca, Rhus virens Lindheimer, an Ephedra., sev- 

 eral species of cactus, four or five species of fern, and a liverwort. 

 On the sides and around the base of the mountains, in addition to 

 the above, w^e found the following : 



Schifiiuclhi riipcstris (Liiiiiipus) 

 Spring- 



Nolina 1iii<Uiriiiicria)ia (Seheele) Wat- 

 son. 



Agave IccJnij/uiUd Torrey. 



Qucrcus uudulata Torroy. 



Fallitfjia paradoxa (G. Don) Endlicher. 



Acacia rccmeriana Schlet'htoiulal. 



FoiKliiicria splcudciis Englemanu. 



Kwherlinia spinosa Zuccariui. 



Cactus micromeris (Engoluiann) 

 Kuntze. 



C. stellatus icxanus (Engelmaun) 

 Coulter, 



C. dasyacantluis (E ii g e 1 in a n n ) 

 Kuntze. 



C. tiihcrculosiis (Engelmann) Kuntze. 



Echinocactiis horizoiiiliiilovius Le- 



ma ire. 

 E. icislizcni Engelmann. 

 Ccrcus foidlcii Engelmann. 

 Opuntla (Platopviitia) lindhclmeri 



Engelmann. 

 O. macroccnira Engelmann. 

 O. pha'acanfha Engelmann. 

 O. icnuiKpina Engelmann. 

 O. filipciidula Engelmann. 

 Op II II tia ( Ci/1 ill drop iintia ) a rborcsccns 



Engelmann. 

 O. grahanii Engelmann. 

 O. Icptocaulis de Candolle. 

 Gavrija wriglitii Torrey. 

 Lippia xcriglitii Gray. 

 Ibcrvillea Uiidhciiiicri (Cogniaux) 



Greene. 



Animal life. — This station has a rather varied fauna, and its loca- 

 tion in the midst of the Eastern Desert Tract gives it an importance 

 which is increased by the fact that much biological material was 

 gathered and sent to "Washington by army officers stationed at old 

 Fort Bliss in earlier years, furnishing the types of many described 

 species. Fresh-water mollusks are numerous in the Rio Grande, 

 and land pulmonates occur in the mountains. Owing to the lowness 

 of the water in this portion of the Rio Grande at certain seasons, th^ 



