BOTANY.' 
The Flora of the Upper Niobrara.— In the north- 
western part of Nebraska there are conditions which have 
given rise to a flora which possesses unusual interest to the 
student of botanical geography. Here a spur of the Rocky 
Mountains extends eastward between the headwaters of the 
Niobrara River on the south and the White River on the north. 
This extension of elevated land bears the local name of Pine 
Ridge. It rises above the great plain as a series of higher and 
higher ridges and points, until at its culmination it is fully 
twelve or fifteen hundred feet above the general level to the 
north and the south. Its southern slopes are less abrupt, but 
upon its northerly side it is often very abrupt and broken, and 
here there are multitudes of picturesque and fantastically 
shaped buttes. 
Both the Niobrara and the White Rivers, in this region, run 
through rather broad flood plains, but their tributaries are all 
caiion streams, often with high rocky precipices along their 
banks. Here and there fine springs burst from the sides of the 
canons, and give rise to clear, cold streams of pure water. 
These are more numerous upon the northerly side than upon 
the south. The elevation of the summit of the ridge is nearly 
five thousand feet above the sea. The tunnel of an extension 
of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway passes through 
the ridge at a measured elevation of four thousand five hundred 
feet, and there are numerous points within a short distance 
which rise fully three or four hundred feet above it. 
The vegetation of this region presents an interesting ming- 
ling of the Rocky Mountain and the eastern floras. Its most 
striking feature is the abundance of pine trees. These are all 
of the Rocky Mountain variety of the Great Yellow Pine of 
the I'acific Coast. Pimis ponderosa var. scopulorum. They 
attain a height of from fifty to eighty or ninety feet, and have 
often a diameter of from fifteen to twenty- five or more inches. 
They occur in heavy masses in the canons, and in more scat- 
tered growths upon the slopes and hilltops. So important are 
these pine forests that many saw mills have been erected near 
them, and large quantities of lumber have been cut for use in 
railroad construction and for other uses. Other trees occur 
only in the canons. The most important of these are Neguvdo 
aceroides, Prunus Americana, Priimis demissa, Fraxinus viridts. 
! department is edited by F 
