VOL. 111.] A Trip through Southeastern Utah. 355 
not far from Bluff City, where the gold placer excitement has recently. 
existed; from there, by way of McElmo Creek and Montezuma 
Valley, to Mancos, a town in southwestern Colorado. 
Mr. Alfred Wetherill, who was my guide, planned the route, man- 
aged everything about the camp and horses, helped me greatly in 
collecting, and, altogether, was as good a friend and as efficient an 
aid as any botanist could desire. 
Thompson’s Springs is so named because of its relative nearness 
to water. Ina desert country the watering places become the cen- 
ters, the named places on the map, and though they may be many 
miles away from a railroad station, yet more than the small cluster 
of buildings serve to locate to the cattle men, who are almost the 
only travelers, the general situation of any place. The name would 
suggest moisture and verdure, but besides the water tank anda 
feeble stream of yellow alkali water at the bottom of a gulch, every- 
thing was dry. However, it was the period when vegetation was 
most luxuriant, and the earth was gay with flowers. Townsendia 
slrigosa almost carpeting the ground in spots, recalled Burns’ ‘‘wee 
crimson-tipped flower;  Thelypodium ambiguum, with its branch- 
ing habit, glaucous foliage, and numerous clusters of rose-pink blos- 
soms, gave brightness here and there; while within the precincts of 
the station were Aster tanacetifolius, Arabis longirostris, Abronia mt- 
crantha, cycloptera and turbinata; ‘4 Conanthus differing most notice- 
ably from Conanthus aretioides \n its smaller flowers, Cenothera 
scapoidea and trichocalyx, Atriplex corrugata and Nuttallii, and the 
shrubs so frequent in the desert, such as Grayia polygaloides, Arte- 
misia tridentata and spinosa, Bigelovia graveolens and Jetradymia 
spinosa. So many of the desert shrubs are spinose, because nature 
is here such a niggardly provider that their ambitious efforts to be- 
come big plants are thwarted, and they must remain straggling, 
woody, spiny shrubs. 
‘There was no time for exploring the country around Thompson s 
Springs, nor for branching off onto the alluring mesas and into the 
side caiions along the road. An early start had to be made so as to 
reach a spring at noon and Moab at night, allowing plenty of time 
for collecting on the way. 
Some time after we le 
range of low hills, where 
ft the station there stretched before us a 
the evidences of upheaval were unusually 
