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favorable that the use of gypsum, recommended by Prof. Hilgard for the neutralization or transformation of the alkalies, ought to be ascertained by experiment in this locality; still more so as there is an abundance of gypsum on hand in close proximity.

The use of gypsum as a transformant and neutralizer might also be recommended, as an experiment at least, in the Pecos valley, where alkaline and salt water is used for the irrigation of alkaline soils.

The supposition that the alkali contained in the soil will be leached out gradually by irrigation, might hold good if the water used for irrigation would contain none or only small quanties of lime and alkalies, but it contains, according to analysis of Prof. H. H. Harrington (of the Agricultural and Mechanical College), over 300 grains (nearly three-fourths of an ounce) of solid contents to the gallon, in which up to 106 grains of alkali (analysis No. 2), and consequently it enriches the upper part of the irrigated soil with alkali. This enriched surface is plowed under and mixed with the less alkaline lower material, till finally the alkali will accumulate to such a degree that the soil will be fit only for salt and alkaline plants.

It is easily proved by experiment that solutions of alkalies and salts in general, if filtered through soil, are tenaciously retained by the upper part of the soil, and only after these are saturated to considerable degree the lower portions will be charged and infiltrated. And it takes unproportionately large quantities of water to free the impregnated soil from the excess of salts.

PLANTS.

Though the flora of West Texas, incident to the dry climate, is poorer than that of East Texas, there is a rich field for the professional botanist, and he would find many new plant species to immortalize his name by classifying and naming them. But even a layman in this profession will find that west of the Pecos river nature produces many useful and interesting plants.

Foremost among them are the grasses, and particularly noteworthy among those the gramma grasses.

The blue gramma (Boutelua olygostachya), the wooly or jointed gramma (B. eriopoda), and the B. stricta are the most common grasses covering the flats, hillsides, and mesas, the last two species prevailing particularly in the Chanatte mountains. Less frequent is the black gramma (B. hirsuta, but its range extends further east, and it can be found to the Brazos river.

A number of other grasses, such as Buchloe, Chloris, Sporobolus, Andropogon, Aristida, some specimens of Panicum, Festuca, and many others, are found in West Texas, but they are of less importance. They