120 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 187. 



"White Sands, many plants grow and flou- 

 rish. In Bulletin 22 of the New Mexico 

 Experiment Station, Professor A. Goss 

 gives a good plate showing the edge of the 

 sands, with a Elms and plenty of gi'ass 

 growing on the slope. On October 6, 1896, 

 a few plants were obtained from the White 

 Sands, and these formed the subject of an 

 interesting paper by Miss Alice Eastwood 

 in Proceedings of California Academy of Sci- 

 ences, third series, Botany, Vol. I., No. 2.* 

 Three of the plants were so modified by 

 their peculiar environment as to constitute 

 new varieties, viz., CEnothera or Galpinsia 

 iubicula var. filifolia, CE. or Anogra albicmdis 

 (^pallida) var. gypsophila and Bigelovia (or 



(3, 



White Sands, as above. 



Larrea-soil, i. e., soil wbere the Larrea grows^ 

 on the bench behind the Agricultural Col- 

 lege. It consists of wash from the Organ 

 mountains principally. 

 Mesquite-soil, i. e., soil of the Mesquite zone, the 

 one immediately below the last, also mainly 

 derived from the mountains. 

 (4.) Phichea-&o\\, i. e., sandy soil from the zone of 

 Pluchea horealis and the tornillo bush; river 

 alluvium. 

 (5.) Adobe soil, from the Station orchard. 



The plants were watered with well water, 

 which contains some salts in solution, but 

 not an excessive amount. The tallest plant 

 in each pot was measured at intervals with 

 the following results, given in centimeters : 



Wheat. 



Width of leaf 

 blade, Apr. 1. 



Diam. of 

 stalk Apr. 1. 



White Sands, 



Larrea, 



Mesquite, . . . 

 Pluchea, . . . . 

 Adobe, 



2J mm. 

 2* " 

 2f " 



2 " 



3 " 



Clvrysoihamnus') graveolens var. wpi^endicidata. 

 Two others, Thelesperma gracile and Midden- 

 bergia pungens, were not modified. 



In 1897 Professor E. O. Wooton collected 

 plants on the White Sands, adding a num- 

 ber of species to the list. Of these, four 

 have at present been published in the Bulle- 

 tin of the Torr'ey Botanical Club, 1898. They 

 are Conanthus carnosus, Wooton, and Andro- 

 pogon neomexieanus, Nash, two new species 

 as yet only known from this locality, and 

 Sporobolus giganteus and S. nealleyi, not con- 

 fined to the sands. 



On February 7th of the present year we 

 sowed seeds of Feldspar wheat and the 

 Eural New Yorker pea in pots in five dif- 

 ferent soils in the Experiment Station green- 

 house, ten seeds in each pot. The soils were 

 as follows : 



* In this paper it is stated in error that the plants 

 were gathered in August. 



The data of April 1st are the best, as 

 they include measurements of the leaf and 

 stalk. It will be seen that on June 11th 

 the gypsum wheat actually out-topped that 

 from the adobe soil (which previously was 

 the best) , but it was found that during the 

 latter part of the experiment the roots 

 from each pot have grown downwards so 

 as to form a mat in the soil on which 

 the pots were placed, which was of good 

 quality. This resulted from our thought- 

 lessly transferring the pots from the bench, 

 where they had stood, to the floor of the 

 greenhouse to make way for some other 

 plants. 



On June 11th the wheat was all ripe 

 except one or two very small heads in 

 all the pots except the gypsum one, which 

 still had six or seven green heads. The 

 ripe ears were gathered, and we got this 

 result : 



