January 9 1K95.I 



Garden and Forest. 



13 



Much has been written in regard to the gray vegetation 

 of the Arizona plains. Little has been said, however, 

 about our mountains and broad table-lands, which bear 

 another flora, with leaves as green, flovi'ers as bright, and 

 shade. as deep as we find in any other portion of our 

 country. 



In a two-months' trip, from Tucson to the Grand Caiion 

 of the Colorado, and return, I have collected more than 

 eight hundred species of Phsenogamous plants. Dr. Wil- 

 cox has found between five and six hundred species in the 

 Huachuca Mountains. On a recent trip of tvi'enty-one 

 days to the mountain ranges of soutlr-eastern Arizona I 

 collected three hundred and twenty species. The large 

 and varied collections, made by botanists in different por- 

 tions of Arizona, amply testify to the great diversity in our 

 flora. Our plateaus and mountains give us a vegetation 

 similar to that of more northern climates, while our south- 

 ern mesas give us a peculiar and interesting one, charac- 

 teristic of the planes of Mexico. 



Arizona has a greater number of forest-trees than any of 

 the other states or territories of equal area west of the Mis- 

 sissippi River ; a greater number than Michigan or Califor- 

 nia, and nearly eighteen per cent, of the species of the 

 United States. 



During July I was one of a party who made a trip by 

 wagon over a considerable portion of south-eastern Ari- 

 zona. We rode about four hundred miles and visited the 

 Santa Rita, Huachuca, Mule, Svvisshelm, Chiricahua, Gal- 

 luro and Rincon mountain ranges. Of all these ranges, the 

 Chiricahuas are the least known, botanically. They have 

 an interesting and diverse vegetation, and especially is this 

 true in regard to the forest flora, since seventy per cent, of 

 all the trees of the state are growing on these mountains. 



The Chiricahua Mountains may be termed the northern 

 prolongation of the Sierra Madre range of Sonora and Chi- 

 huahua. They occupy a large area in Cochise County, 

 and, like the other ranges of south-eastern Arizona, extend 

 approximately north and south. All these ranges differ 

 considerably from each other as regards their geological 

 formation. Owing to this, and to the fact that they 

 ■are separated from each other by more or less broad 

 strips of mesa, each is quite different from its neighboring 

 ranges in the prominent features in its flora. A marked 

 distinction is also noticeable in the vegetation of the mesas, 

 when separated by mountains of considerable elevation. 



Approaching the Chiricahua Mountains from the west, at 

 the north of the Swisshelm range, we entered White River 

 canon, ascended this cafion to old Camp Rucker, thence 

 over the divide to San Simon Valley, skirted the eastern 

 border of the mountains to Fort Bowie, and ascended all 

 the important cations on the east side. These canons are 

 all thickly wooded. In many places the trees and under- 

 brush are so dense that one can only get through after 

 much effort. The most abundant trees are Oaks, Pines and 

 Junipers. In the lower cations are Cottonwood, Mesquit, 

 Desert Willow, Black Willow, Silky Willow, Mexican Elder, 

 Soapberry, Mulberry, Mexican Buckthorn, Ash, Box-elder, 

 Junco, Broad-leaved Yucca, Oaks and Acacias. Farther 

 up we find Walnut, Alder, Sycamore, Maple, Locust, Cherry, 

 Bearberry, Hackberry, Oaks, Pines and other conifers. In 

 the foot-hills and lower mountains are two species of Palo- 

 verde, the narrovir -leaved Yucca, two Tree Opuntias and two 

 Acacias. On the mountain-sides, at a greater elevation, 

 we find Juniper, Cedar, Mountain Mahogany, Arbutus, 

 Aspen and several Oaks and Pines. 



On a limestone cliff at the right, a few miles before 

 entering White River Cafion, are growing a number of 

 specimens of Bumelia spinosa, one of which measured 

 thirty feet high and eleven inches in diameter. Here were 

 also fine specimens of Morus celtidifolia and Quercus 

 grisea. A trunk of the latter species measured twelve 

 feet four inches in circumference. An interesting form of 

 Q. undulata, with very undulate leaves, was found grow- 

 ing on these rocks. This is the only form of this very 

 variable species, so far as I have observed, that approaches 



a tree in size. Specimens were measured that were from 

 twenty-five to thirty feet high and eight inches in diameter, 

 and with a good clean trunk. 



By the side of this cliff, along the wash from White River 

 Cafion, were abundant specimens of Chilopsis saligna, 

 Salix nigra venulosa and .S. longifolia, var. The latter is a 

 beautiful tree with rather long drooping branches and small 

 silky leaves. A few specimens measured eighteen inches in 

 diameter ; most usually, however, this tree is much smaller. 

 Platanus Wrightii, Fraxinus velutina* (see page 15) and 

 Juglans rupestris were occasionally seen, but were not so 

 abundant as they were later. Juglans rupestris is more or 

 less abundant in all the mountain ranges of south-eastern 

 Arizona. It is most usually a small tree with white stiff 

 branches ; sometimes, however, it grows to a considerable 

 size. Specimens were measured in the Galluro Mountains 

 with trunks twelve feet eight inches in circumference, and 

 long wide-spreading branches. There is a great varia- 

 tion in the size of the nuts of this species ; sometimes they 

 are fully an inch and a quarter in diameter, and sometimes 

 they are not one-quarter of that size. 



At the entrance of the canon were a number of large 

 specimens of Juniperus pachyphloea, the most beautiful 

 and symmetrical of all our Junipers. One trunk measured 

 over thirteen feet in circumference. Growing with this 

 Juniper were J. occidentalis monosperma, Quercus Emoryi 

 and Alnus oblongifolia. Among ranchmen Juniperus 

 pachyphloea is known as Juniper, while all the shreddy- 

 barked species are called Cedar. The Cedar is a much 

 more durable timber, and is used extensively throughout 

 this region in building fences and corrals. 



Quercus Emoryi is the most abundant and widespread 

 of all the Oaks of Arizona. From a mere shrub on the 

 mountain-side it grows to great size in more favorable 

 localities. One of these Oaks at Rosemont, on the Santa Rita 

 Mountains, has a trunk fourteen feet nine inches in circum- 

 ference, and the magnificent spread of ninety-six feet. 

 The acorns of this species ripen as early as June, and 

 under the name " biotes " are used for food by Mexicans 

 and Indians. This, together with the small bunch of 

 pubescence at the union of leaf-blade to petiole, are impor- 

 tant characters in the identification of this species. Another 

 Black Oak, somewhat similar, but probably a new species, 

 was found on the mountains above Bisbee. 

 Tucson, Arizona. J. W. Toiiniey . 



Foreign Correspondence. 



London Letter. 



Begonia Socotrana. — One cannot easily say too much in 

 praise of this Begonia as a winter-flowering plant. It is 

 grown in quantity at Kew, where there are now man)' 

 specimens of it in flower. The finest examples of it, how- 

 ever, that I have ever seen are now flowering in the nur- 

 sery of Messrs. F. Sander & Co., St. Albans. They are 

 about eighteen inches high, with five or six stems, in a six- 

 inch pot, the leaves in some cases fully ten inches in diame- 

 ter, and the flowers very numerous in terminal racemes, 

 their color a most pleasing shade of rose-pink. Is there 

 not some mistake in the note on this plant on page 4S6, 

 vol. vii., where the flowers are said to be "fully four inches 

 across" ? I have never seen any that exceeded two inches. 

 Possibly American treatment may result in flowers twice as 

 large as can be obtained by the best English growers. 

 Here the tubers are started in August in a sunny moist 

 stove, and when the plants are in vigorous growth they are 

 placed near the glas^ in the sunniest possible position till 

 they flower. 



* Fraxinus velutina is a round-topped liandsome Ireo. Ihirty or forty feet in 

 height, which ranges from the mountains of western Texas through southern 

 New Mexico and Arizona, southern Nevada and south-eastern Calitornia. It is 

 common in northern Mexico, and grows in Lower Cahfornia. It is usually 

 found in the neighborhood of streams, in elevated cations, and, occasionally, on 

 dry mesas, where the leaves are thick and leathery, and sometimes coaled with a 

 dense velvety tomentum. It is often planted for the shade of its abundant leaves 

 in the towns of southern Arizona and northern Mexico, .along the streets and on Die 

 tiorders of irrigating ditches. 



