URAL EE 1. 
COLORADO DISTRICT* 
FLORA OF THE OPEN GROUND. 
The most obvious division of the botanical regions traversed during the 
season of 1873 would be into the open grounds, including under this head 
the plains from Denver to the foothills, the flat portion of South Park, the 
immediate valley of the Arkansas, and San Luis Valley proper. There 
would then remain the mountain region, including here the entire flora from 
the lower limit of timber to the highest mountain tops. 
There is at first sight a wonderful sameness about the flora of the 
plains, which has not escaped the notice of casual observers. The hoary, 
dry, stunted plants, with the great preponderance of yellow and red flowers, 
when compared with the more living aspect of the mountain flora, actually 
compels a contrast in the mind. 
To what is this difference due? Meteorological statistics from Colo- 
rado are as yet meagre in the extreme. Up to 1872 from only three points 
did we have observations for a period of over one year. Such at least is 
the showing of Mr. Schott’s ‘‘ Tables and Results of the Precipitation in Rain 
and Snow in the United States”, and neither of these points was fairly within 
the grasp of the mountains, so that any comparison must be somewhat 
lame. If, however, we sum up and average the fall of rain and snow at 
Forts Garland, Massachusetts, and Lyon, it appears that the mean amount 
is 12.09 inches. This, however, can only be taken as an approximate 
estimate for the more open country just east of the main divide, being 
probably greater than the fall farther east, and certainly less than that west. 
*] have taken this chapter on the Colorado District from my Preliminary Report, published in 1874. 
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