1885.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 469 



The Ash already seen at El Paso is occasionally met with ; it is planted 

 in the streets of Isleta and San Elizario, its quick growth and spread- 

 ing limbs making it a valuable shade tree. The Mexican Elder (Sam- 

 bucus Mexicana) also found in these towns may have been imported. 



Below San Elizario, the valley remains broadly open down to old 

 Fort Quitman. The water, however, is not always abundant or of good 

 quality and, during dry seasons, disappears in places ; the soil is also 

 more barren. Large groves of Cottonwood, often continuous, cover the 

 alluvial bottom. 



Atriplex canescens,, under several marked forms, grows thickly on 

 sandy and gravelly banks; common also are the other Chenopods, 

 Atriplex acanthocarpa and expansa, often in the company of the weedy 

 Acanthocliiton Wrightii. Ephedra antisypfiilitica and trifurca (Canatilla) 

 are never rare on the foot-hills with the Creosote-bush and cylindrical 

 Opuntiae. Nearer the edge of the river are thickets of Baccharis 

 ccerulescens, Bluchea borealis, and that most common of bushy weeds 

 Aster spinostis. 



At Quitman, the prevalent grasses are Hilaria mutica and Bouteloua 

 oligostachya (Common Grama). 



Below this point the valley becomes contracted and does not admit of 

 farming as far down as Ruidoso. The Cottonwood continues to be 

 abundant, although now with increasing distances between the groves. 

 From the summit of Eagle Mountain it can be traced along the valley 

 from Ojo Caliente into Yieja Canon ; it is dense at the mouth of Capote 

 Creek ; thence, with few interruptions, extends to Presidio del Norte, 

 forming large woods a few miles above this town. 



The valley is more or less settled between Ruidoso and Presidio, and 

 under irrigation yields good wheat, corn, and vegetables. Fifteen miles 

 from the latter place is the village of Polvo, at the foot of the Bofecillos; 

 thence to Del Rio there is no other agricultural settlement. 



Below Presidio, the Cottonwood is much less frequent ; small clumps 

 are seen at long intervals. It disappears in the Great Canon, where no 

 arborescent vegetation of any kind is possible, but reappears below it, 

 forming large groves a few miles from the mouth of the Tarlinga, south- 

 west of the Chisos Mountains. At this point, the broad valley, abundant 

 water and rich alluvial soil offer great inducements to settlers. Thence 

 the Cottonwood is more sparse, but still occurs in scattered clumps as 

 far as the Sierra Carinel, below the abandoned Presidio de San Vicente. 

 Here the river enters another series of canons, a hundred miles long, 

 and as it issues from the highlands, near the mouth of the Pecos, it is 

 bare of Cottonwood and remains so to its mouth. 



At Presidio del Norte (953 miles from the mouth of the Rio Grande, 

 altitude 2,780 feet) the broad valley and adjoining terraced table-lands 

 are encompassed by steep hills and craggy mountains bare of all visible 

 arborescent growth, the whole forming a vast landscape of utter dreari- 

 ness and desolation. 



