IOWA TO PUGET SOUXD. 55 



frequently on the rocks. On getting well np the eastern slope 

 of the Wasatch ]\Ioiintains, bunch grass and sage brush become 

 quite common, and on passing over to the western slope, where 

 moisture condenses in rising, the conditions are still less xero- 

 phytic. Cattle are seen frequently, and there is a considerable 

 amount of good farming land in the valleys. Soon we reached 

 the valley formed by the subsidence of the old lake Bonneville 

 into the present Salt Lake. In this fertile area, surrounded by 

 snow-capped mountains and making a scene of wonderful 

 beauty, one sees an abundance of grasses and sedges of very 

 ordinary appearance, and the first rushes and cat-tails noticed 

 since the first day of travel. 



We passed rapidly through, this irrigated and wonderfully 

 fertile valley, through Salt Lake City, to Ogden, where an 

 eleven-hour stop gave ample opportunity for collecting some of 

 the characteristic xerophytes of the foothills about the city. 

 Among these the common greasewood, Sarcohatus vermiculatus, 

 with its characteristic xerophytic shrubby appearance, often 

 standing several feet high, commanded the attention of the 

 writer, who had previously known it through herbarium si>eci- 

 mens and the statements in writings on Ecoloe'v. The other 

 plants collected as showing xerophytic adaptations were Chen- 

 opodium album, Artemisia ludoviciana, Gray'm polygaloides. 

 Astragalus utaliensis, Lupinus liolosericeus, Bigelovia graveo- 

 lens and a number of other things lost through lack of proper 

 means of preservation in traveling. Ogden was left in the 

 night, and the morning found us at Pocatello, in southern Idaho, 

 in the great lava-covered area, where thrive the bunch grass 

 {Agropyron spicatum^ and much more conspicuously, the sage 

 brush (Artemisia tridentata). The sage brush often stands 

 several feet high and has a most peculiar apj^earance to one 

 not accustomed to it, seeming to cover the ground completely, 

 except near by and often extending as far as the eye can reach, 

 producing the aspect of a stunted forest composed of shnibs so 

 low that one can look over them from the car mndow. The 

 bunch grass furnishes food for cattle in summer, and the sage 



