Tlic Botany of Texas 11 



Pacific, The party exteBded their explorations as far west- 

 Avard as the middle of Arizona, returning in the summer of 1852. 



The collections of this second expedition by Chai'les Wright, 

 of which approximately^ 650 species are from Texas (117), were 

 the basis of the second part of Plantae Wrightianae (51) pub- 

 lished by the Smithsonian Institution in 1853. "'As Mr. Wright 

 collected more largely than his associate botanists (of the Alexi- 

 can Boundaiy Survey), and divid'.'d his collections into sets, 

 his specimens are incorporated into a considerable number of 

 herbaria, at home and abroad, and are the tjpes of many new 

 species and genera. No name is more largely commemorated 

 in the botany of Texas, New Mexico^ and Arizona, than that of 

 Charles Wright. * * * * Surely no botanist ever better 

 earned such scientific remembrance by entire devotion, acute 

 observation, severe exertion and perseverance under hardship 

 and privation.'' (*) 



Simultaneous with the later surveys of the Mexican boundary 

 were the Pacific Railway Surveys made under the direction 

 of the Secretary of War to ascertain the most practical and 

 economic route for a railroad from the ^Mississippi River to the 

 Pacific Ocean, (1852-1855). Two lines of the survey crossed 

 portions of the State of Texas: (1) the Whipple Expedition, 

 near the 35th parallel, and (2) the Pope Expedition along the 

 32nd parallel, ^'The Botany of the Whipple Expedition'' 

 (103), based upon observations and collections made by Dr, J. 

 ^I. Bigelow, is considered the most important of all the Rail- 

 road Surveys. This z'oute traversed the extreme northwestern 

 portion of the state, however, and only a small number of the 

 collections were made on Texas' soil. Dr. Geo. G. Shumard, of 

 the Pope Expedition, made a collection of about 320 species 

 in Texas and New Mexico, which were reported by Torrey and 

 Gray in Volume 2 of the Report of the Pacific Railway Sur- 

 vey (105). 



The explorations of the Red River to its source, by Capt. R 

 B. ilarcy in 1852, offered an opportunity for scientific observa- 

 tions in the northern part of the State. Two hundred species 



*From biographical sketch of Chas. Wright. Sci. Papers of Asa 



r 



Gray. II. pp. 468-474, 



