THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 231 



what is believed to be the true nature of the special sense nerves, as 

 contrasted with other cranial or the true spinal nerves, and the con- 

 formity of the other cranial nerves to the common spinal type. 



3. The next communication has the following title : " Plantse Wrighti- 

 ance Texano-Neo- Mexicans, Part II : By Dr. Asa Gray, Professor of 

 s Botany in Harvard University." 



It has been stated in two of the preceding reports that a small 

 appropriation was made for botanical explorations in Texas and New 

 Mexico, and that the results had been placed in the hands of Dr. Gray 

 for scientific investigation. The first memoir on this subject was de- 

 scribed in the last report. It has been printed, and copies distributed 

 to all the working botanists in this country and Europe. It also forms a 

 part of the third volume of the " Smithsonian Contributions.'" 



The object of the present memoir is to give a scientific account of 

 the collections made by Mr. Wright, under the direction of Col. J. D. 

 Graham, U. S. Topographical Engineers, and Major W. H. Emory, of 

 tKe Boundary Commission, in New Mexico and in Eastern Texas, 

 during the summer and autum of 1S51, and the spring and early part 

 of the summer of 1852. 



The description of the plants from this region was previously carried 

 as far as the order Composites. In the present paper Dr. Gray gives a 

 similar account of the recent collections up to the same point, and re- 

 serves the other portions of these collections made by Mr. Wright, with 

 the remainder of the undescribed plants of Fendler and Lindheimer, 

 to be described in a general memoir. One portion of the collection 

 was made from July to November, from El Paso to the Copper Mines 

 of Santa Rita del Cobre, in the southwestern part of New Mexico ; 

 and thence into the northern part of the Mexican State of Sonora, as far 

 as Santa Cruz, returning to the Copper Mines by way of Guadalupe 

 Pass, and thence back to El Paso. The plants obtained during this 

 tour are of exceeding interest,, and comprise a larger portion of new 

 sgecies than any other collection that has fallen into Dr. Gray's hands. 

 Another portion was obtained in the vicinity of El Paso, and the rancho 

 of Frontera, and down the Rio Grande for sixty or seventy miles; 

 also, up the valley of the river as far as Camp Fillmore, and thence 

 into the Organ mountains, which bound the valley on the east. 

 Another collection was made in a hasty excursion to Lake St. Marie 

 and Lake Guztman, in Chihuahua. These several collections afford 

 many novelties, no botanist having previously explored this region at 

 the same se'as®n of the year. 



It is expected that a full account of the topography and productions 

 of this country will be given in the reports of Colonel Graham and 

 Major Emory. 



• The interest which attaches to the results of explorations of this 

 kind is not confined to the botanist, but extends to the physical geo- 

 k* grapher and the political economist. An accurate description of the 



botany of a region is a sure guide to a knowledge of its power of pro- 

 ducing and sustaining vegetable and animal life, and consequently of 

 its value in a commercial and political point of view. 



4. Dr. Leidy, of Philadelphia, has presented a memoir on the extinct 

 species of the ox of America. In this paper he indicates the former 



