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for patches where grass holds the ground or a cold slope excludes them.

Since the rains the grass has grown thick and high. The Fouquierias & other plant have put on full leaves & most plants and have come out in flower, so the desert looks like a spring prairie. A little Chrysothamnus like bush covers the slopes near the Rio Grande, from Sierra Blanca to El Paso, with a golden robe, and numerous kinds of brilliant desert flowers spot the ground with color. The Larrea has gone to seed. Many species of cactus are in flower. I never saw the desert vegetation at such a stage of perfection, each plant rounded out, full, symmetrical, and perfect, standing alone and uncrowded. 

The ranches along The Rio Grande Valley look unusually flourishing & the boys bring baskets of peaches, pears, grapes, & apples to the train.

The screw bean (P. pubescens) is the common bush of the valley & every bush is loaded with beans.