212 BOTANICAL GAZETTE. [ August, 
distance and on both sides of the valley is a continuous line of 
bold bluffs overlooking the plain. Excepting near the river, and 
an occasional grove of post-oak, the ligneous vegetation is scant 
and dwarf. The last sign of granitic formation was left in Mason 
county, and in reaching Kimball all the rocks are limestone. 
Here for the first time we met the Sophora speciosa, already in 
fruit, the red beans of which are considered very poisonous. In 
fact these beans, scattered over the rocks, seem to be respected 
by every kind of animal. Near our camp on the Little Saline 
creek we made a good collection: in the valley, Tetrodes Coulteri, 
Berlandiera lyrata, Parthenium lyratum, Gaura macrocarpa, Aris- 
tolochia brevipes, Coldenia canescens, and Croton Neo-Mexi- 
canum; on the neighboring bluffs, Scheenocanlon Drummondi, 
Lepidium lasiocarpum, Abutilon parvulum, Styrax platanifolia, 
Perezia runcinata, Chrysactinia Mexicana, Hymenatherum tenui- 
lobum, Atriplex canescens, and Leucena setosa, the last being a 
remarkably fine shrub. There also occurred two Yuccas, Y. cana- 
liculata, growing to the height of 9 or 10 feet and giving to the 
landscape a tropical appearance, the other, referred to Y. rupicola, 
though I think it is different. 
long the Big Saline ereek we noticed for the first time since 
we left Dallas the Quereus Mublenbergii; but afterwards we find 
oe species quite abundant in the mountainous region of S. W. 
e 
xas. 
The 16th of May we reached Junction City, where the two 
forks of the Llano river unite. We pitched our tent on the north, 
fork, in a beautiful spot, and if we were not botanizing I would 
have much to say about the delicious fish, the squirrels, the bea- 
vers, etc. The river is full of Nuphar advena, and near a pictur- 
esque fall I collected Lythrum ovalifolium and Agrostis verticil- 
ata. In the thicket covered valley I notice the following spe- 
cies: Callirrhoe pedata, Antirrhinum maurandioides, Vesicaria 
Gordoni, Stillingia Torreyana; on the rocky bluffs, Specularia 
Lindheimeri, Allionia incarnata, Nicotiana trigonophylla, Notho- 
lena sinuata, and a beautiful Cereus unknown to me. At the 
foot of a perpendicular rock near the river I found Euphorbia 
chamesula, and a grass new to science, Festuca Texana. 
_ The north fork of the Llano is fringed with a growth of fine 
timber, but the high bluffs, which come éloser to the river as We 
ascend the valley, are covered with bushes or stunted trees, Quet- 
cus Durandii making most of the thickets. Very often these 
bluffs are covered with high walls of hard limestone of dazzling 
whiteness. 
On the 21st we arrived at old Fort Terrett, which is situated 
