Charles Wrights collections of 185I-52 
The collections of this period were mad9 when Wright was associated 
with the Mexican Boundary Commission. He joined the party of Col. J.D. Graham 
at San Antonio in May 1851 and trsvelle^ to El Paso on the southern wagon-road. 
He reached El Paso the end of June, 184I, having collected 579 numbers, along 
' t 
the same route he had explored, between June 1 st and Sept. 12 th, 1849. This 
first lot of plants was shij^d to Gray sdon after.his arrival in El Paso. 
Gray received it Dec.4, 1851. After collecting about El Paso for several 
weeks, Wright accompanied Graham,Irho had to report to Commissioner Bartlett, 
on a journey to Santa Rita (the Coppermines), Hew Mexico. The party remained 
at Santa Rita until late in August,1851, when Graham's party(with Wright, as 
"Botanist and Assistant Computer") and Bartlett's party (with Thurber) travelled 
west for a meeting with the Mexican Commissioner Gen. Garcia-Conde. This 
turned out to be a series of misadventures. The meeting took place much farther 
west than expected, provisions ran short, and Bartlett, with Graham following, 
got beautifully lost in the Huachc^cas trying to find the road to Santa Cruz, Sonora, 
for new provisions. ’Wright, who was a long, however, did have the chance to 
do some fine botanizing. The trip from Santa Rita to Santa Cruz is described, 
day by day, in John R. Bartlett's, Personal Narrative(l 854 - 56 ), and in Graham's 
report, Exec, Doc. Senate, 1 st sess., 32 nd Cong, vol.15, no. 121 (1852). The party 
returned to Santa Hita early in October,1851 3 and was back in El Paso the first 
week in November. Bartlett and Graham having failed to accomplish anything, 
the latter was recalled to Washington in October 1851. He left El Paso in 
November taking with him the second lot of Wrights plants (952 numbers). 
Graham delivered them to Gray June 4,1852. Wright was next under Major 
Bnory, who replaced Graham, and was put to work surveying with partial time 
for botanizing. The collections in the third lot of Wright's collection 
date from Peb-July 1852* $$3ny of these are from the vicinity of El Paso, 
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