50 Contributions to Western Botany, No. IX.  [Zok 
coming fainter, till they are barely visibte at the tip of the petal, 
no interlacing veins anywhere; for about a line above the base 
and about a line wide there is a dark-blue ring around the corolla 
(beginning where the veins first branch), below this to the base 
the petals are golden yellow and so a yellow eye is formed in the 
center of the flower; filaments linear-subulate, blue on the upper 
¥%; stamens with versatile anthers 1% a line long; styles 5, from 
double to 4 longer than the stamens, filiform, barely globularly 
enlarged at tip; ovary nearly globose; 3 inner sepals wider and 
obtuse, hyaline, 2 outer ones ovate and acute, green, not nerved; 
buds pendent; flowers erect; petals convolute in the bud, with 
blue veins on the outside and yellow-hairy at the base within; 
leaves and sepals coriaceous and glaucous; the stems are tufted 
from the crown but unbranched. This species is quite common 
throughout the Great Basin. 
THE GREAT SALT LAKE DESERT. 
The writer was much interested in crossing the Great Desert 
west of Salt Lake City, which, on the maps, is called the Great 
American Desert, to see Nature’s provision for redeeming the 
barren waste. ‘This desert is supposed to cover all of the region 
west of the shores of Great Salt Lake, from near Kelton, south- 
ward to the north end of the Fish Springs range (the first range 
east of the Deep Creek mountains, or Mt. Ibapah) and westward 
as far as the Toano range, which is the first range west and north 
of the Deep Creek mountains. All this region, and more, was 
once the bed of Great Salt Lake and probably was covered 
with water less than 5,000 years ago. It is almost level and 
averages 4,400 feet above the sea. But the area that is actually 
without vegetation is only a small part of this region. It begins 
at a point almost due east of Mt. Ibapah and runs northward for, 
say 30 miles, and is about 20 miles wide. Then the western side 
runs almost due north toward Pilot Peak for another 20 miles 
and then swings eastward. The eastern side of the area turns 
northeastward about opposite the north end of the Granite range 
and extends nearly too miles toward Great Salt Lake. The 
whole barren area lies between the Granite range and the Deep 
