REPORT OF MR. F. S. EARLE, ASSISTANT CURA- 
TOR, ON A COLLECTING TRIP TO WESTERN 
TEXAS AND NEW MEXICO. 
Dr. N. L. Brirron, Director-in- Chief. 
Dear Sir: In accordance with your instructions I started from 
Barstow, Texas, on April 20th, for a wagon trip through the 
Davis Mts. in western Texas. On this part of the journey I was 
accompanied by Prof. S. M. Tracy. Barstow is on the Texas 
Pacific Railway near where that road crosses the Pecos River. 
It is in a low sandy plain constituting the second bottom of 
the river, The original growth is mesquite scrub (Prosopis), 
with a dense sod of ‘salt grass” (Sporobolus) on the heavier 
moister portions. To the eastward this plain is bounded by 
low gravelly ridges covered with ‘creosote bush” (Covillea). 
This region proved to be a poor collecting ground, only about 
seventy numbers being taken during a careful examination of 
several square miles of territory. Barstow is an agricultural cen- 
ter of some importance, water for irrigation being taken from the 
Pecos River. Cotton is the principal crop and this is I believe the 
only point in the United States where this crop is grown on a 
large scale under irrigation, California grapes (z7nifera varieties), 
peaches and cantaloupes are other important crops. 
Leaving Barstow our course was in a general southwesterly 
direction for about a hundred miles to Fort Davis, entering the 
mountains by way of the Limpia Cafion. From this point we 
turned northward, following a rugged trail through the heart . 
the mountains for sixty miles to Kent, on the Texas Pacific R. 
and thence back easterly along the line of the railroad to eda 
the trip occupying fifteen days. 
e region is a very interesting one botanically, and later in the 
season after the beginning of the summer rains it would have 
yielded a great variety of plants. Owing to the heavy overstock- 
ing with cattle, and to the columnar character of the rocks with 
many vertical crevices which seemed to intensify the usual con- 
dition of spring drought characteristic of western Texas and New 
