October i8, 1893.] 



Garden and Forest. 



433 



and vineyards of the Atlantic coast has been steadily in- 

 creasing in volume and improving in quality. Of course, 

 the growth of population will account to some degree for 

 the development of this business, but we must infer that 

 Americans use fruit more generally and more largely every 



year. 



New York. 



M. a B. 



Botanical Notes from Texas. — XII. 



OUR ride from Pearsall to Laredo is more to the south than 

 to the west. It is mainly through a plain region mantled 

 over with the shrubs already mentioned in these Notes. In 

 the valleys of the Frio, Leonaand Nueces Rivers a larger growth 

 is to be seen. In other favored localities Mezquit attains a size 

 that allows it to be utilized as fuel, and the ringing of axes 

 swung by Mexicans is heard breaking the monotonous stillness. 



Rio Grande del Norte is only great as it is compared with the 

 streams of the south-west. It is hardly equal to the Arkansas 

 or to the Red River, yet for thousands ot miles it will be, to 

 some degree, a Nile to the millions of people who will inhabit 

 its valley and utilize its waters for irrigation. 



Laredo is a city of ten or fifteen thousand inhabitants. It is 

 about midway between Kansas City and the city of Mexico, 

 which cities are about two thousand miles apart. Laredo is 

 situated in the valley of the Rio Grande, about half a degree 

 south of the twenty-eighth parallel, and about the same dis- 

 tance west of the ninety-ninth meridian. It is a pleasant city 

 to be in, the largest city in Texas, and the largest in the United 

 States that lies so far south, unless it be Key West. The 

 mean annual temperature of Laredo is said to be higher than 

 that of any other city in the United States, excepting Fort 

 Yuma. Just outside of the city limits on the north lies a long 

 stretch of level bottom-land, which is now being utilized for 

 vineyard purposes. The plat is irrigated by water raised by 

 steam-power from the Rio Grande. Several hundred acres 

 have already been planted in Grapes. The earliest-planted 

 vines are now yielding their first fruits. The success of the 

 enterprise appears to be well established, and Laredo may be- 

 come renowned for the amount and quality of its grapes and 

 wine. Last spring a car-load o£ grapes, raised about twenty- 

 five miles south of the city, were shipped from Laredo to 

 Chicago. They reached their destination about the 29th day 

 of May. Grapes in northern markets in the month of May, 

 ripened out-of-doors, marks an epoch in the history of Grape- 

 culture in the United States. 



From the immense fossil oyster deposits at the bottom of 

 deep ravines and elsewhere near the city, it appears that this 

 locality was well supplied with that bivalve long ago, when the 

 waters of the ocean mingled here with the fresh water of the 

 Rio Grande, or of some river which was its predecessor. 

 There are extensive deposits of good coal along the river 

 above the city. Opposite Laredo, across the Rio Grande, is 

 Nuevo Laredo, a city of six to eight thousand inhabitants. 



The river valley, and the higher ridges which mark its 

 former banks, add to the general interest of this locality for 

 botanical studies. The strange Larrea Mexicana is here on the 

 hills, but is not so common or so large as it becomes farther 

 north. When Nature set out to paint the leaves of this shrub 

 she dipped her brush deeper into the yellow than into the blue 

 pigment, and thus gave the leaves a dirty ochre color, by 

 which the plant may readily be distinguished. How it came 

 to have the sooty odor, which gives to it the common name of 

 Creosote-bush, is not so easily determined. The whole plant 

 is so resinous that it burns as readily green as dry. Its rather 

 handsome small yellow flowers are succeeded by small hairy 

 fruits. The Creosote-bush appears to be, in this state, at least, 

 confined to the bluffs of the Rio Grande. Very common in 

 richer soils near the river, and for a hundred miles or more 

 eastward, is the odd-looking Koeberlinia spinosa. At first sight 

 it appears to be only a bundle of thorns. On closer study we 

 see that it is a real shrub, becoming at times a small tree. Its 

 small leaves drop early. Its very numerous stunted branch- 

 lets all develop terminal thorns, upon which are borne clus- 

 ters of numerous small yellowish flowers and the blackish 

 fruits that succeed them. The simple imaginative piety of 

 Mexicans has led them to believe that twigs of this shrub 

 were used to form the crown of thorns which was placed upon 

 the brow of the Saviour. 



On slopes grows Parkinsonia Texana, with trifoliate leaves 

 and flowers very like those of the Jerusalem Thorn. It is 

 more strongly armed than any other of its Texas congen- 

 ers. A Korameria, with handsome light purple flowers and 

 the characteristic fruit of the genus, is often to be seen, even 



in the most arid places. Unfortunately, my visit to Laredo was 

 made at the time when the long-continued drought was at its 

 height, and so all that was eatable and within their reach had 

 been taken by the numerous flocks of goats. But, though all 

 the specimens of the plants that I saw had been closely pruned 

 by them, it was plainly to be seen that one species was K. 

 ramosissima. 



The low-growing Lantana involucrata, with handsome ma- 

 roon flowers, is common along fences and around brush piles. 

 Rivinia laevis, named after the German botanist who lived more 

 than two centuries ago, is a relative of Phytolacca (Poke) and 

 grows everywhere in southern Texas, in shaded places. Its 

 spikes of handsome red berries are more attractive than its 

 purplish flowers. 



One of the most conspicuous plant-sights in the south-west 

 is Agave Americana, the well-known Century-plant of eastern 

 conservatories. It is a native of the lower Rio Grande region, 

 extending far south-westward. This most remarkable member 

 of the E)affodil family has been almost venerated from the 

 mistaken belief that it blossomed only once in a century. The 

 species is monocarpic, but whether it blossoms in ten years 

 or in twenty, or in more or in less years, depends upon the 

 degree of prosperity which it has enjoyed. In the south-west 

 the species is chiefly remarkable for being the original source 

 of the principal intoxicants of Mexicans, and to some extent that 

 of their nearer eastern neighbors. The juice of our plant is used 

 in three conditions as a drink — as it comes uncharged from 

 the plant, when it is like sweet cider ; the juice, when fer- 

 mented, known as pulque; and mescal, which is obtained by 

 distillation from pulque. Like cider-brandy, mescal, when 

 new, is a hot liquor, with a rank and peculiar odor. A drink 

 or two of it will make the commonly staid and silent Mexican 

 completely wild. When mellowed by age, mescal becomes 

 milder and more pleasant, and is, perhaps, the most innocent 

 liquor which people of the Rio Grande valley can procure, ex- 

 cept their native wine and brandy. 



Varilla Texana, a queer south-western composite, is abundant 

 from about the ninety-ninth meridian, westward. It is a woody 

 plant, low-growing, and forming clumps sometimes two feet 

 across. Its very numerous leaves, which are confined to the 

 lower part of the stem, are about an inch long, rounded and 

 succulent. The leafless upper portion of the stem, or the 

 peduncle, isfrom six to ten inches long, bearinga solitary rather 

 small head of rayless yellow flowers. 



Forms are constantly changing. But it would be interesting 

 to know how the species of a genus, and the genera of an 

 order, have come to differ so widely. We can readily see that 

 an annual plant, removing to a more arid and hotter country, 

 would soon learn that a development of wood-tissue in its 

 roots and stem was almost a necessity to its changed condi- 

 tion of life. We can understand how Thallophytes, how even 

 coast forms of inland species, thicken their leaves and stems 

 'under the influence of the salt-laden breezes of ocean. We 

 would like to know how Varilla came to ditferentiate so widely 

 from Helianthus, from Pterocaulon, Perezia, Arctium, and 

 from Bellis. How the original typical composite itself, with its 

 wonderful sporting powers, came into existence, from some 

 antecedent, more gencal form. By what lapses of time, 

 changes in conditions of climates and soils, and by what pro- 

 cess of hybridizing, and crossing and bud variation, it haslieen 

 enabled to outstrip all its competitors in the struggle for su- 

 premacy in the vegetable kingdom, and to become by far the 

 most numerous, progressive and highly specialized family of 

 plants. 



A little way east of Laredo I found what is probably Perezia 

 nana, though its pappus is tawny. Notwithstandirjg the 

 drought at Laredo, one of the most disastrous on record, yet I 

 found many plants in blossom and literally wasting their' fra- 

 grance on the desert air. Thousands of Chilopsis saligna were 

 displaying their handsome purple or white flowers on the bluffs 

 of the river, while its neighbor, Leucophyllum, usually a sum- 

 mer bloomer, was taking a rest. Flourensia was also in blos- 

 som, a species of Brickellia, and a little Pectis and two hand- 

 some species of Hoffmanseggia. 



.San M.ircos. 



E. N. Plank. 



The Use of the Generic Name Halesia. 



STEPHEN HALES ( 1 677-1 76 1) was a clergyman of Ted- 

 dington, England, and a pioneer in observations on 

 plant physiology. His Statical Essays, the first volume of 

 which treats of "Vegetable staticks, or an account of some 

 statickal experiments on the sap of vegetables," was pub- 

 lished in London in 1827. The work passed through three 



