Notes from Colorado. 21 J 



HOTEL DEL CORONADO. 



This magnificent hotel, now rapidly nearing completion, occu- 

 pies nearly five acres of ground and is the largest of any hotel ed- 

 ifice in the world. The building surrounds a grand court 150 by 

 250 feet in size, which will be planted with many beautiful orna- 

 mental shrubs and trees, and made to rival tropical luxuriance. 



The dining hall will seat one thousand persons. There are 

 about 800 rooms in this hotel, which completed and furnished, 

 will have cost over $1,600,000. 



NOTES FROM COLORADO. 



Aster campestris Nutt in Colorado. Two forms of this Aster, 

 which is new to the Colorado flora, were collected by me at the 

 Twin Lakes on August i6th last. They were kindly identified 

 for me by Dr. I. M. Coulter. 



Colias eurytheme. I find a form of the female, in which the 

 yellow color is replaced by white, with the exception of the orange 

 spots on the hind wings, occurring with the type near West Cliff, 

 Custer Co., Colorado. This variety, which is analagous to similar 

 forms in other species of the genus (E. G. C. edusa van helice 

 Hb.) may be called C. eurytheme var. pallida. 



Linum perenne form albiflorum. On October loth, I picked a 

 ])retty variety of L. perenne in Montrose Co., Colorado, not iar 

 from Cimarron. It was lower growing than the type, and had 

 white flowers with blue radiating lines. 



r. D. A. Cockerell. 



W£ST Cliff, Colorado, Oct. 30th, 1887. 



FOSSIL FERNS. 



Thinking an article on the fossil ferns of this section might be 

 of interest to your readers, I will begin by stating that this famous 

 fossil bed is in Grundy County, Illinois. The bed is about three- 

 fourths of a mile long, and situated in the bed of a creek. The 

 fossils are about twenty feet from the surface, imbedded in steatite, 

 inside an iron-stone nodule, shaped like a kidney. On being 

 broken open the fern, plant or animal remains are beautifully 

 traced, nearly equal to life. I believe there has been between 

 three and four hundred species classified from this locality. The 

 more common are Neuropteris hirsuta. Pecopterus mixta and 

 Pecopteris villosa. Owing to constant collecting for many years, 

 fossils are becoming quite difficult to obtain. Another drawback 

 is that a few individuals are trying to control the entire ground 

 for money-making purposes, and asking outrageous prices for the 

 fossils; and having bought the sole right to collect, keep many 

 enthusiastic collectors at bay. O. D. W^albridge. 



