yi PLANTH FENDLERIANS. 
“Mr. Fendler ‘fiveliea the well-beaten track of the Santa Fé traders to the Arkansas, and 
then followed that river up to Bent’s Fort, which he reached on the 5th of September. On the 
25th of September the Arkansas was crossed, four miles above Bent’s Fort, and the westerly 
course was now changed to a southwestern direction. Opuntia arborescens was first observed 
in the barren region now traversed ; and the shrubby Atriplex (No. 709) was the most character- 
istic and abundant plant, furnishing almost the only fuel to be obtained. Thus far the country 
was a comparatively level, or rather rolling, prairie, rising gradually from one thousand to more 
than four thousand feet. But on September 27th, the base of the mountain chain was reached, 
which is an outlier of the Rocky Mountains, and attains in the Raton Mountains the elevation of 
eight thousand feet. West of these, in dim distance, the still higher Spanish Peaks appear, 
which have only been visited, very cursorily, by the naturalists of Major Long’s expedition in 
1820. Scattered pine-trees are here seen for the first time on the Rio de los Animos (or Purga- 
tory River of the Anglo-Americans), which issues from the Raton Mountains. The party several 
times crossed large perfectly level tracts, which at this season, at least, showed not a sign of veg- 
etation ; in other localities of the same description, nothing but a decumbent species of Opuntia 
was observed. The sides of the Raton Mountains were studded with the tall Pinus brachyptera, 
Engelm. (831), and the elegant Pinus concolor (828). Descending the mountains, the road led 
along their southeastern 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 nine thousand feet 
above the sea-level, two thousand feet above the town, but do not reach the’ line of perpetual 
snow, and are destitute, therefore, of strictly alpine plants. Their sides are studded with the two 
Pines already mentioned, with Pinus flerilis, &c. : 
“The Rio del Norte, twenty-five or thirty miles west from Santa Fé, is probably two thou- 
sand feet Jower than the town, and spring opens earlier there; but its peculiar flora is meagre. 
On its sandy banks a few interesting plants were obtained; and some others in places where 
black basaltic rocks rise abruptly from the river, or where a rocky talus lies at their base. 
‘South and southwest of Santa Fé, a sterile, almost level plain extends for fifteen miles, 
which offers few resources to the botanist. Opuntia clavata was found exclusively here ; besides 
this, Opuntia arborescens, O. pheacantha, Cercus coccineus, some grasses, and in some locali- 
ties the Shrub Cedar (834), are the only plants seen on these wide plains. To the west and 
northwest of Santa Fé, a range of gravelly hills thinly covered with Cedar and the Nut-pine 
(830) offers a good botanizing ground in early spring. The valleys between these hills appear 
to have a fertile soil, but cannot be cultivated for want of irrigation. They furnished some very 
interesting portions of Mr. Fendler’s collection, and of Cactacew, the Mammilaria papyracantha, 
Cereus viridiflorus, C. triglochidiatus, and C. Fendleri. 
“ By far the richest and most interesting region about Santa Fé for the botanist, as will be 
seen from the localities cited in the following systematic enumeration, is the valley of the Rio 
Chiquito (little creek) or Santa Fé Creek. It takes its origin about sixteen or eighteen miles 
