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Show THE FLORA OF SOUTHWESTERN COLORADO. BY TV S. BRANDEGEK. Attached to the division of the San Juan as assistant topographer, as much time as possible was given to the botany of the country through which our work obliged us to pass. Under such circumstances, it was impossible to make a complete botanical collection of the district given to our division ; therefore no plants were gathered excepting such as seemed to be additions to the flora of Colorado, as published by the Survey in Miscellaneous Publications, No.. 4. The collections and notes were almost all made while riding from one topographical station to another. Early in June we left Pueblo for Southwestern Colorado, via the Mosca Pass, over the Sangre de Cristo. The country was alive with innumerable grasshoppers, busy eating every green thing excepting the leaves of Juniperus occidentals and the cactus- plants. Opuntia Missouriensis was in full bloom, and early in the morning, before the grasshoppers had breakfasted upon the newly- opened flowers, presented a magnificent sight. We rode over mile after mile of the Saint Charles and Huerfano Plains, now covered with the red or yellow flowers of Opuntia Missouri' ensis. The mesas, variegated with the different- colored patches of this cactus, presented a striking contrast to their generally dry, barren appearance. The thickets of Shepherdia argentea on the banks of the Huerfano and its tributary streams, and the abundance of Abronia fragrans upon the mesas, at once attract the attention of any one familiar with the flora of Northern Colorado. Up the eastern slope of the Sangre de Cristo we meet with Abies Douglasii, and at the very summit of the pass find a long- leaved tree of Abies concolor. Pinus flexilis^ scattered here and there by its twisted branches, bears witness to the prevalent direction of the winds. Some fine old trees of Abies concolor grow along the little stream which runs down the pass, and near the base of the mountain descend into the habitat of Pinus edulis. A camp at the foot of the pass close to the dunes affords an opportunity for examining the vegetation about those mountains of drifting sand. Nothing, not even a blade of grass, grows upon them; but along their base some Triticum repens, Thermopsis, Astragalus pictus, Psoralen, have a foothold. The willows continue along the creek until they are almost buried by the sand which has collected about them. From here to the Rio Grande, the dry level country is very uninteresting botanically. With the exception of the banks and alkaline flats of the lakes, for thirty or forty miles we pass through a Lilipntian forest of Bigelovia, Sarcobatus, and Atriplex. Beds of Heliotropium Curassavicum, with their pretty white flowers now in full bloom, are scattered over the alkaline flats about the lakes. The sandy beaches of the lakes are the favorite habitat of Nasturtium sinuatum. In September, the banks of the streams were yellow with Bidens chrysanthemoides, and upon the surrounding plains Cleome Sonorcd, with Aplopappus lanceolatus, grew in |