| OCR Text |
Show 228 abundance. These plants, so common about the lakes, were seen in no other place during our summer's explorations. Up the Eio Grande, as far as to fifteen miles above Del Norte, nothing of interest was noticed; there we first meet with Berberis Fendleri^ which, after we had crossed the main range, was found quite as plenty upon the western slope. Wagonwheel Gap, through which the waters of the Eio Grande have barely room to find their way, is a cailon of magnificent beauty, and is very interesting botanically. Although only 8,000 feet above sea- level, Cryptogramme achrosticoides flourishes among the loose rock. On the face of the cliffs and among the debris at their base, a new Gilia, G. Brandegei, Gray, was found growing in abundance. But for its yellow flowers, it would have been passed by as Polemonium confertum, var. meUUum, which it almost exactly imitates in leaves and fragrant viscosity. At the head of Los Pinos Creek we leave the Eio Grande, cross the Sierra Madre, and come upon the western slope of tbe Rocky fountains. The alpine and subalpine floras at this southern latitude are almost exactly the same as those of Northern Colorado. Pachystima Myrsinihs andErythronium grandiflorumare very common, and Aquilegia Canadensis almost entirely takes the place of A. ccerulea. Among the common species of Senecio, Sedum, Pedicularis, & c, but two additions to the flora of Colorado were noticed : Armaria saxosa of New Mexico and Corydalis Caseana of the Sierra Nevada. To find these plants growing with species of so northern a habitat as Calypso borealis, Listera cordata, and Aspidium Filix- mas was very interesting. The Corydalis prefers the banks of the little mountain- streams and cold springs in the shade of the forests of Abies Engclmanni and grandis. Here it reaches a height of 5 feet; the finely- dissected leaves are 2 feet and more long, forming a very handsome foliage- plant, but its blue tinged flowers lack clearness of color. In the valleys of the Los Pinos, Florida, and Animas, at about 7,000 j feet altitude, the first decided change appears in the flora. Plants not I before known to exist in Colorado become common, and in some places form the greater part of the vegetation. Bushes of Fendlera rupicola 10 feet high grow upon the bluff- sides; thickets of Peraphyllum rations-simum are very plenty, now full of its long- stemmed fruit called by tbe few white settlers wild crab- apple. Conspicuous among the plants I which mark the change in the flora are Rhamnus Cali/ ornicus7 Hosackia, Yucca baccata. Southwestern Colorado, an extent of country of very diflferent altitudes, : and embracing within its limits various conditions of soil, moisture, & c, of course has a varied flora. The flora of the alpine and subalpine I regions of the Sierra La Plata, the only high mountains in oar district, like that of the Piedra and Los Piuos Mountains, is similar to that of j equal altitudes in Northern Colorado. To the alpine flora, the only addition is a bright- pink clover, named by Mr. Watson Trifolium Brandegei. The subalpine flora compared | with that of the eastern slope has a greater abundance of Eubus , Nutkanusn Pyrus sambucifolia} Prosartes trachycarpa. The Mesa Verde, a plain of two hundred square miles, raised nearly 1,000 feet above the surrounding country, is a prominent topographical feature of Southwestern Colorado. Its surface is per- | fectly dry; the showers from the La Plata Mountains rarely vet- i ting it except upon the northern edge. Juniperus occidentalis covers almost the whole mesa, and it is to the abundance of this on |
