232 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 433. 



meadow or pasture. Such monotonous planting destroys 

 all sense of relief and repose. Where one square rod is just 

 like all the rest the eye soon wearies and craves something 

 with distinct features and variety of expression. This 

 suggestion should be heeded by all who attempt the natu- 

 ralization of such plants as Narcissus, Scilla campanulata 

 and other bulbous plants in the turf. Just as Water-lilies 

 are much more effective when they are planted in groups 

 with a stretch of smooth water beyond them, so these Daf- 

 fodils are infinitely more beautiful when there are reaches of 

 grass between the different masses. For this turf-planting 

 does more than furnish individual flowers for our delight. 

 It ought to make a charming picture in the distance. If 

 the bulbs are planted along the border of a meadow, closely 

 here, more openly there, resembling somewhat a pictur- 

 esque shore-line with capes and bays and detached islets 

 about which the smooth turf flows like a lake, the picture 

 will have some artistic meaning. Mr. Robinson well says 

 that a passing cloud will often give a good form for an 

 isolated group and will be specially instructive since it is 

 more compact toward the centre, as groups of Narcissi 

 should be in the grass. 



We should like to see more fields and wood borders in 

 this country garnished with flowers in this way. Some of 

 our native weeds naturally arrange themselves into pic- 

 tures of this kind, but most of them are destructive of the 

 grass crop. The leaves of Daffodils, however, ripen before 

 the grass is fit for mowing, so that the bulbs will be ready 

 for another year's bloom before the machine passes 

 over them. They work trifling harm to the hay crop 

 and yield a harvest of beauty whose value cannot be 

 estimated. 



A Botanical Journey in Texas. — V. 



EARLY on the morning of the second day of July I 

 left El Paso for a visit to Mount Franklin. This is a 

 vast longitudinal pile of rocks upon gravel and sand, and 

 of sand and gravel upon rocks, and of mud deposits upon 

 both, the whole resting upon granite, which on one side 

 of the mountain is reddish in color, while on the other side, 

 and nearer the river, it approaches white. In some places 

 the granite seems to have intruded into the other material. 

 Mount Franklin itself is nearly isolated, most of the range, 

 of which it appears to be a remnant, having gone down the 

 river to assist in filling the Gulf of Mexico, or having been 

 used nearer home to fill the old lake-like expansion of the 

 river. 



Measurements made by Captain Ruhlen, of the United 

 States army, give the mountain an elevation above the level 

 of the Court-house yard of 3,000 feet, and of 6, 700 feet above 

 the level of the sea. It is, therefore, one of the highest 

 mountain peaks of Texas. The stories told of the rugged- 

 ness of the slope and its difficulty of ascent were fully con- 

 firmed by experience. I found no springs of water, and for 

 ten hours wandered in thirst over the mountain. Once in 

 western Kansas I passed thirty hours without food, though 

 with plenty of creek-water to drink, and the recollection of 

 this hardship consoled me, so philosophy triumphed, and 

 my work was probably as well done and as many plants 

 were collected as there would have been if I had been 

 fully watered and fully fed. 



Since I visited the mountain to see and to collect its flora 

 and search for rare and unknown plants, the more difficult 

 and unusual way of ascent was taken through a precipi- 

 tous ravine half-way up the mountain, thence to a different 

 rock formation, and along the crest of the mountain until 

 the topmost crag was reached. 



Standing on the mountain-top and looking around for a 

 new plant, the well-known habit of the handsome ever- 

 green Sumach, Rhus virens, showed itself at the base of a 

 crag just below me. It is evidently more daring and 

 climbs higher than any of its congeners. R. microphylla 

 and R. trifoliata are lower down on the mountain. At my 

 feet was the humble Paronychia Jamesii and Selaginella 



rupestris in the crevices of rocks. Lechuguilla, Agave 

 heteracantha, is by far the commonest tall plant upon the 

 high mountain, and furnishes it with its visible green. Can- 

 dle-wood and Solat are notfar below it, all of them ascending 

 to about 6,000 feet. The rather rare and extreme western 

 Pepper- Grass, Lepidium lasiocarpum, is common on the 

 mountain, and only there, so far as I have observed it. It 

 is a low apetalous species with hairy fruit, as its specific 

 name indicates. 



The most interesting shrub on the mountain is a Lippia 

 with rounded crenated leaves and spikes of small white 

 flowers. It is handsomer than L. ligustrina, and fully 

 equals that species in the strength and sweetness of its per- 

 fume. The general habit of the shrub is like that of Salvia 

 ballotai'folia. It is also to be found lower down among the 

 foot-hills. Malvaceous plants are common higher up as 

 well as lower down. Some of them are very handsome. 

 With the rest, Abutilon parviflorum, with small yellow 

 flowers, is abundant, especially in the lower ravines. Pectis 

 angustifolia and P. prostrata are common on the mountain 

 slopes and among the foot-hills. Both species are hand- 

 some little plants and lemon-scented. The former extends 

 northward to central Kansas, where its human neighbors 

 call it, by way of nickname, "Camphor-plant." 



More species of Boerhaavia grow on and around the 

 mountain than I have seen elsewhere. They all are semi- 

 erect spreading plants, peculiar in their habit, their manner 

 of growth, their flowers and fruit. Each is very like the 

 other, and to know one of the species is to know most of 

 them. A low-growing and handsome Asclepias is abun- 

 dant on the mountain. It is probably A. uncialis, as it is 

 not more than three or four inches tall. Torrey's Lycium, 

 L. Torreyi, a tall shrub, is very abundant around El Paso. 

 Its purplish flowers are followed by small red berries, 

 which are used for tarts and jellies. There is another 

 Lycium here, a much smaller species, with whitish flowers. 



A curious and interesting plant bearing the rather pleasant 

 name of Janusia gracilis is abundant in the ravines of the 

 mountains, ascending to an altitude of, perhaps, a mile. It 

 is found also among the foot-hills. It is a low, slender 

 climber with yellowish flowers, which are usually borne in 

 pairs. They are succeeded by samara-like fruits, which 

 readily distinguish the species. It belongs to the family of 

 plants which keep bright the memory of the old Italian 

 botanist, Malpighi, the author of the Anatomy 0/ Plants and 

 the father of microscopy. Of larger shrubs on the mountain 

 and among the foot-hills, not already noticed, a Cercocar- 

 pus, Fallugia junco, Crown of Thorns (Kceberlinia) are 

 present, and Ptelea angustifolia, as distinct from its con- 

 gener as nature ever makes it, which is not saying very 

 much for its specific rank. 



In all regions where dryness of the atmosphere produces 

 aridity of the soil the vegetation is largely limited to quickly 

 growing, annual, deeply rooted bulbous plants and woody 

 perennial plants. In the short rainy season the annuals 

 quickly spring up, blossom, perfect their seeds, and die. 

 The seeds sleep in the soil until the rain comes again, when 

 they repeat the processes of their ancestors. The bulbs, 

 too, sleep, but they are always ready to grow. Within 

 three days after a rain the ground may be literally white 

 with flowers of Cooperia, where not an individual was to 

 be seen before the coming of the rain. There is always 

 water in the soil, though it may not be measured. Deeply 

 rooting bulbs and the roots of woody plants are able to 

 reach that water in sufficient quantities to enable them to 

 live and to keep a slow life. The decay of their worn-out 

 roots adds constantly, not only to their stock of pabulum, 

 but also to the stock of fluid to infuse it. The living every- 

 where are drawing their subsistence from the dead. 



Texas, from near the Gulf to New Mexico, is the native 

 place of at least five species of Ephedra, a remarkable 

 genus of gretaceous Gymnosperms. All of them are low, 

 humble shrubs, with green and sometimes shreddy bark, 

 and few or no leaves. We wonder that Nature should stop 

 to make such strange freaks of vegetation. We wonder 



