462 Colorado College Publication 



brachycarpa, which are found from 9,000 up to 14,000 feet, 

 Shrubby Cinquefoil, Dasiphora fruticosa, 6,500 to 12,400 feet, 

 and the White Mountain Avens, Dryas octopetala, 11,500 to 

 14,000 feet. 



The following plants are characteristic of this zone : 

 Catchfly or Campion, Silene acaulis, three species of Saxifrage, 

 Saxifraga debilis, austrouwntana, and rhomboidea, Stonecrop, 

 Sedum integrifolium, Alpine Mertensia, Mertcnsia alpina, For- 

 getmenot, Myosotis alpestris, Lousewort, Pedicularis parryi, 

 Polemonium, Polemonium confer turn, Knotweed, Polygonum 

 viviparum, Gentian, Swertia palustris, Mountain Avens, Siever- 

 sia turbinata, Phlox, Phlox condensata, Figwort, Synthyris 

 alpina, Clover, Trifolium nanuni, Colorado Candytuft, Thlaspi 

 coloradense. 



CLIMATE. 

 In general the cHmate of El Paso County may be described 

 as temperate, usually without great extremes of heat or cold, 

 though the thermometer does on rare occasions in summer 

 go above ninety in the shade, and similarly in winter fall to 

 thirty below zero. But usually the temperatures are moderate, 

 and neither of the extremes are so hard to bear as in many 

 other places. The plains region has the higher temperature in 

 summer, while there is no great difference in the minimum 

 vv'inter temperatures over the whole county, though the daily 

 mean temperature is greater on the plains than in the moun- 

 tains. 



The rainfall is greatest in the mountains, and least on 

 the plains toward the eastern edge of the County. The win- 

 ter snowfall is light, comparatively so in the mountains, where 

 it is probably not more than half that on the Continental Divide 

 and the other ranges to the west of us. The snowstorm early 

 in December, 1913, when about two feet of snow fell in Colo- 

 rado Springs and much more in the mountains, was a very 

 exceptional storm, the like of which had not been l<nown for 

 mare than thirty years, and as a rule the deepest snowfalls 

 are in spring, when the snow does not last long. 



