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Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 78.djvu/363

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EDWARD PALMER
353

gether with a short list of plants from Lerdo, in the state of Sonora, Mexico, at the head of the Gulf of California. At the latter place he collected great quantities of a parasitic fleshy plant, Ammobroma sonoræ, the "oyutch," or sand-food, of the Cocopa Indians.

In 1890 he spent three months in Lower California, collecting at La Paz, Santa Rosalia and Santa Agueda, as well as upon Kaza Island and the island of San Pedro Martir, in the Gulf of California; and three months in southern Arizona, collecting at Camp Huachuca, Fort Apache, and Willow Springs. He also made two trips to Alamos in the mountains of southern Sonora, the first during the latter part of March and beginning of April, the second in the month of September. The results of these expeditions were published by Dr. Rose in the "Contributions from the U. S. National Herbarium, Vol. 1, pp. 91128, 1891. In 1893 he collected in southern Idaho.

He afterwards collected in the more tropical regions of Sinaloa and Colima; at Acapulco, the seaport of Guerrero, from which the galleons of the ancient conquistadores sailed to the Philippines; and in the Territory of Tepic. Several times he has revisited the interior states of Coahuila and San Luis Potosi, collecting among the pines and oaks of the mountains, as well as on the arid plateau and in the warm moist region of the lower land near the Gulf of Mexico. He has penetrated into the heart of Durango, making two trips to the Sierra Madre of that state, once in 1896 and again ten years later, in each case going as far as the newly built railroads would take him and making extensive and often painful journeys to lumber camps and mining regions in the mountains. In 1907 he revisited Tamaulipas, collecting especially near Victoria and Gomes Farias. In 1908 he revisited Chihuahua, this time collecting near the capital and at the neighboring stations of Santa Eulalia and Santa Rosalia.

His last trip, in 1910, was to the gulf coast, in the vicinity of Tampico, Tamaulipas.

From all of these expeditions he returned laden with a wealth of material, his specimens remarkable among those of all collectors, not for their prettiness, though they were often beautiful, but for their completeness, showing when possible bark, root, wood and seed-pods or fruit, as well as leaves and flowers. He did not content himself with a single example, but in spite of difficulties would often bring a whole series, to illustrate vegetative foliage and branches as well as flowering branches, knowing that the aspect of the foliage might vary on different parts of the same plant, and that entire plants might differ according to their situation. He accompanied the specimens by accurate notes as to locality, habitat and season, not disdaining to give local names however barbarous they might sound to ears tolerant only of classic Greek and Latin; and he noted the taste and odor of bark and wood and leaves