78 S. B. PARISH 



Basin; opposite a steeper ascent flanks Pine Lake Mountain, 

 on whose summit small conifers can be discerned. Climatic 

 conditions are austere in this valley. The range of temperature 

 is from 15° to 115°F., and the rainfall, which is very uncertain, 

 from 3 to 6 inches per year, while the violence of the winds is 

 manifested by the sand heaped in the lea of every obstacle. But 

 with all this, vegetation is more abundant and varied than in the 

 still more arid desert beyond. 



The Agaves do not extend to the center of the valley, which 

 is nearly flat. Here stunted Larreas constitute the principal 

 growth, subordinate shrubs being Lycium Andersonii var. 

 Wrighlii, Hymenoclea salsola and Croton calif ornicus. They 

 afford some shelter to a number of annual herbs: Abronia aurita, 

 Dithyrea calif ornica, Coreopsis Bigelovii, Lupinus gracilis, Oenoth- 

 era pallida, Narna demissum, Bceria gracilis, Pectocarya linearis, 

 Salvia carduacea, and others past recognition. The only in- 

 troduced plants noted were Erodium cicutarium and a little 

 Bromus rubens, both much reduced in size, as were the native 

 herbs. 



The soil in which the. above plants were growing is a washed 

 sand, much of it coarse, but further down the valley it is finer 

 and loamy, and evidently contains some alkali. Here the plant 

 most in evidence was a low form of Atriplex canescens, which had 

 been closely browsed by cattle. There were also a few small 

 mesquites (Prosopis glandulosa), some growing free and others 

 buried in low dunes. All were alike leafless, a testimony to the 

 severity of the winter climate. In this soil herbs were almost 

 wholly absent. 



The slope toward the higher mountain on the southwest side 

 of the valley is exceedingly rough with rocks, both in place and 

 in strown fragments, and is cut up by shallow ravines. The 

 vegetation exhibits a manifest zonalization. To the Larreas 

 of the valley floor succeeds a nearly unmixed belt of a shrubby 

 Eriogonum, whose glaucous foliage gives it a slaty-blue aspect. 

 As it was not yet in flower the species could not be determined. 

 This was succeeded by a mixed chaparral, in which Condalia 

 Parryi and Prunus eriogyna were markedly dominant. Next in 



