Volume 5 February 27, 1909 



MUHLENBERGIA 



NEW 



NOTES ON THE FLORA OF THE PECOS RIVER 

 NATIONAL FOREST 



By Paul C. Standlky 



The Pecos River National Forest is located in the central- 

 northern part of the territory of New Mexico, in San Miguel, 

 Taos, Mora, Rio Arriba, and Santa Fe counties. Its area is 

 about 670 square miles. The Pecos river, which flows through 

 eastern New Mexico and western Texas into the Rio Grande, 

 has its source in this area on the side of one of the Truchas 

 Peaks, hence the name of the forest. 



The region is one mass of mountains, the mass being sepa- 

 rated by the Rio Pecos into two ranges, the Santa Fe Range on 

 the west and the Las Vegas Range on the east. Here are found 

 the highest mountains in the territory, thirty-two of the peaks at- 

 taining elevations of 10000 feet or more. The peaks upon which 

 collections were made by the writer, and their elevations are: Tru- 

 chas Peaks, 13306, 13275, and 13150 feet, Pecos Baldy, 12500 

 feet; Elk Mountain, 11 500 feet; Round Mountain, 11000 feet; 

 and Grass Mountain, 10000 feet. The highest peaks have snow 

 upon them almost or quite throughout the year, and snow re- 

 mains on many of the lower ones until late in the summer. 



Only a small amount of collecting has been done in the for- 

 est in the past, and practically nothing has been published con- 

 cerning its flora. Professor F. H. Snow, of Kansas University, 

 CT5 spent parts of several summers in the early eighties on the 

 ^ eastern side of the region, especially at and near Harvey's ranch 

 and the Las Vegas Hot Springs; his plants are almost all in the 

 cc herbarium of Kansas University, and nothing has ever been pub- 

 cc lished about them. During the summer of 1898 Messrs. Maltby 



i (*7) 



