In one of the last numbers of the Gardeners' Monthly appeared an article on the wild plants of South Carolina, by Mrs. J. S. R. Thomson, which the writer of this read with much interest, and at the same time it reminded him that years ago he promised to write something similar, hoping that it may be of some interest to the readers of this magazine if they should happen to be of the same turn of mind as the writer of this, for to him nothing is so interesting as to read of the plants and flowers of other countries. These notes are jotted down for the Gardeners' Monthly.

It is presumed that everybody knows that Texas is an extensive State and in consequence its climate is diverse, hence the great difference in the flora of the different sections. This difference is more striking when the traveler goes from east to west than from south to north; for when the traveler goes from Houston in south-east he finds magnolias near the coast, and some other large leaved evergreens which are not met with in the interior and towards the Red river; otherwise the flora has about the same aspect on its northern limits as on the coast. But what a change is there in regard to plants when a man travels from east to west! We need not go as far as the extreme western part of the State, the counties of Presidio, Pecos and El Paso, to imagine ourselves to be in Mexico or California, but less than one hundred miles west of San Antonio we meet in the canons and on the mountains of the upper Nueces river a flora so striking as we can only expect to find it in the interior of Mexico.

In view of the large extent of country, the reader will not expect that all remarkable plants of Texas are even enumerated, less described; besides, the deficient knowledge of the writer is a reason why this article can only be very superficial. The plants noted in this article grow mainly in the vicinity of Austin, which is about in the centre of the State, but occasionally plants from other parts of the State will be mentioned.

Starting from Austin some fine day in March we travel to the north-west; at the distance of four miles we come to the foot of the mountain; here the Colorado river leaves the mountains and enters the undulating prairie country. Mount Bonnell lifts up its head several hundred feet above the river; neither ascent nor descent is possible from the river side, as indeed it is only one-half of a mountain, half of it being torn away by the Colorado river in past ages. So we make our ascent from the other side. Arriving at the summit we have the splendid view in all directions as usual on all mountains; after having taken in the view we look at and examine the plants around us. The first plant that arrests our attention is the Sophora speciosa, which creeps up from south-east side to the very summit. It is a beautiful evergreen shrub, or when old a small tree; has obovate pinnate leaves, very rigid, and in March is covered with spikes of violet blue flowers resembling the flowers of Wistaria, but upright and not drooping, but in one instance the writer of this found a plant which had the flowers bent over and somewhat drooping; there is also occasionally a pure white one. The flowers are powerfully odorous.

The seed is a large bean of scarlet color, the size of a cranberry pole bean or larger, borne in large rough pods. It transplants very hard as its roots are not fibrous, but long and few and like to run between the rocks.

But what plant is yonder gray-leaved bush which selected its abode on and between the clefts of rocks overhanging a steep precipice? Leuco-phyllum Texanum is its name. It belongs to the order of Scrophulariaceae, and is a spreading shrub from 5 to 10 feet high, evergreen, if its woolly bluish green leaves admit of this appellation. It is a very beautiful plant and flowers from May to October at intervals a few days after a good shower of rain, and a bush with its ashy gray leaves loaded with thimble-shaped rosy purple flowers is a beautiful object, and, unlike the preceding, it transplants tolerably easily. Close by we find Maurandia antirhiniflora having established itself in the clefts of rocks and hanging down in graceful festoons loaded all summer with its light blue flowers. Dodecatheon Meadia is met on this mountain and has perhaps here its southernmost habitat, but it is far more abundant a few miles higher up in the mountains, where also some other flowers belonging to the northern flora are met, which will be mentioned later.

In the shade of some cedars, Juniperus Occi-dentalis, we find in May or June a beautiful orchid, indeed, the most beautiful orchid of Texas that I know. The Editor of this magazine kindly furnished me with its name, Bletia aphylla. As the reader will perceive, it is a sister or brother to some cultivated species, and, as its name implies, it is without leaves, and I will give as good a description as I can. The root is a creeping rhizome, flat and white, with ring marks around it resembling the insect called centipede; to make this resemblance more striking there dangle from the sides or edges of the rhizome, at least in the flowering time, numerous short bodies which I believe are the annual roots. From the end or point of this root-stock there shoots up in spring the flower stalk without any leaves from the root or on the stalk; the leaves on the latter are mere small scales or bracts. The flower stalk grows about 12 inches high, half of the length is densely covered with beautiful flowers of the size nearly of Hyancinths, of the peculiar shape of all orchids; the color, deep purple with golden or bronze lines. In addition to this the stem and bracts have more or less the same color as the flowers; of the latter I counted twenty on a single stem.

On account of the peculiar color of this flower and the dry cedar leaves which usually surround it, the plant is not easily discovered.

One mile farther down the river on the other side there is a small canon or a mere cleft in the rocks, one mile long. We penetrate this gorge. The wagon road as it enters the same leads for one hundred or more yards through a cave or under an overhanging rock in a semi-circle. Just where the road comes out from under the rock, there bursts a large spring out of the rocks ten feet above the road; the water is deliciously cool even in the hottest season. Ferns like such places and are here in abundance - Adiantum, Aspidium, As-plenium, Cheilanthes vestita. Higher up cactuses hang on the rocks, Opuntia Rafinesquii. Here we find the beautiful drooping fern Pellaea flexuosa. On ledges of rock and in shady moist places we find another beautiful orchid, it is Epipactis gigan-tea. It has a leafy stem 1 to 2 feet high, with leaves like Lilium speciosum all along the stem which terminates in a spike with up to twelve flowers of a yellow color streaked with purple. Here grows also a beautiful tuberous-rooted larkspur; it grows about 3 feet high and has a spike of fine flowers of a peculiar blue color.