18 BOTANY. 



are strikingly suggestive of a more northern birthplace. Besides this, there 

 are Veratrum album, Zygadenus glomus and Z. elegans, and Picea Engclmanni, 

 which tend further to raise the same point of inquiry. The presence along 

 the southern border of Arizona of that somewhat rare and localized fern, 

 Ophioglossum vulgatum, in our present state of knowledge, can only remind 

 us that there are still some points concerning the geographical distribution 

 of plants that arc unsettled ; the most probable conclusion, however, being 

 that (if we banish separate centres of creation for the same species) it has 

 at one time extended over almost our entire North American area. Its 

 present situation in Arizona (on a low hot plain) divorces it from any 

 necessary association with glacial agencies. 



From Southern Colorado to the Zuiii Mountains in New Mexico, we 

 may in the main make the journey, and avoid any considerable mountain- 

 range. North, the "Spanish Mountains" of the older maps will be to the 

 east; and further south, to the west, the various spurs will culminate in the 

 Valles Mountains and the Nacimiento Range, whose highest peaks seldom, 

 if ever, reach an elevation greater than J 2,000 feet, while most of them are 

 much lower. Along the valley of the Rio Grande, the general altitude 

 ranges from about 7,700 feet to . r >,026 feet at Albuquerque. This valley, 

 whilst much cut up by transverse canons and smaller streams, is in the 

 main an area of aridity. Along the streams, the ever-present cottonwood 

 will appear; the sandy or gravelly wastes be covered with the various 

 Artemisias, Nyctaginaceous and Chenopodiaceous plants; and the mesas 

 (or high tablelands) intervening between the streams will be covered with 

 a sparse growth of bunch-grass and grama. Representatives of the Cactacccb 

 will be found constantly. 



Santa F6, just south of the mountains of the same name, is situated at 

 an altitude of 7,047 feet. The plain around is, except where watered by 

 the small stream from the mountain behind, barren in the extreme; not, 

 however, because the soil lacks the elements of fertility, for this it does not, 

 but because it needs an abundant supply of water. 



So long ago as 1846, Mr. Fendler made large collections at this place, 

 and as the results are so well known it is hardly requisite to do more than 

 allude to the general outlines of the flora. The mountain-slopes back of 



